Love is the Strongest of All
by HAWTgeek
Summary: The daughter of Percy and Annabeth,Charlotte Jackson, has survived her prophecy. Noah has told Kate he loved her,and there was a beautiful storybook ending. But the world keeps spinning,and life just doesn't stop at the end of the story. Everyone from All is Fair in Love and War are back, and they'll prove Love is the Strongest of All as they continue where the story left off...
1. Chapter 1

_**Love Is the Strongest of All**_

* * *

_**Charlie,**_

The end of the summer was dawning too fast.

For something that my entire life had led up to, it was over with quickly. Before I knew it, my story was an old one, and it was fading away with new adventures. The days were starting to get shorter and the clothes longer. School supply lists were being sent out.

Everyone was just acting like it had been a normal summer, but it _hadn't_.

This summer had changed my life. I didn't have a prophecy looming over my head. My brother was dating the girl he had been in love with for as long as I could remember. I had been betrayed by Chester Raven, and I had accidentally killed him after he tried to sacrifice me to his mother, the woman in stone who had been trying to kill me for as long as I could remember. And I had met Aiden Cinna.

Maybe it sounds odd that I would put meeting a guy in the same ranking as Chester Raven being a traitor who tried to kill me, but you don't know Aiden Cinna.

Aiden Cinna had become my best friend in the few months we had known each other. He was two years older than me and a Roman general, but, despite our differences, we just seemed to bond together. It was something like my mother had described years ago. My father was the complete opposite of her, a complete Seaweed Brain, but, during that summer where they met, they just clicked.

I didn't necessarily like the idea that my parents relationship was similar to the one I was going through right now though.

I was the baby that no one had ever thought would be born. I was the daughter to Annabeth and Percy Jackson. It wasn't _just_ that they were doomed to have most likely died when they were young. They survived that, and they were riding off into their happily ever after when something life changing happened.

When my parents were twenty three, they had a fight, and my mom moved out for a month. Depressed and sad, my dad was taken out by Uncle Grover to get over it, and he ran into JoJo, his old college friend who had always been in love with him. They got drunk, and, nine months later, my big brother, Noah, was born. I adored Noah, loved him to death. He was my brother, and that was it. My mom was his mom. He didn't even see JoJo as his mom after my parents got back together when he was four. They got engaged, married, and then I came along that May.

My family was odd, and it was very hard to explain it to everyone. The fact that Noah was my half-brother but that he saw my mother as his mom wasn't too hard. I lived in New York City after all. There was so much weirder everywhere else.

It was the fact that Kate, Uncle Malcolm's daughter and my cousin, who had been featured in all of the reports over our family as a cousin just like a sister to Noah, was now his girlfriend. I couldn't say that "god blood" didn't really count to us, and the magazines just didn't try to mess with it. It was much easier for them to put in pictures of my famous soccer-star brother and his beautiful girlfriend, talking about how they had been friends their entire lives, and for teen girls all over the world to wish they were Kate.

After all, Noah and Kate were absolutely perfect. They had always loved each other, though it had been in a sibling way. Noah took Kate to the middle of nowhere and taught her how to drive because she got nervous with other cars all around her like in New York. Kate went to every single one of his soccer games, even rushing to pull on a tee shirt and shorts over her swim suit after a meet so that she could at least make part of his game. When my brother moved out and Kate realized she loved him, she tried to cut him out of her life so she could move on.

It did just the opposite. During my quest, Kate got hurt, and, thinking it would be the last thing she would ever do, she confessed her love for Noah. She survived, and he hasn't stopped grinning since.

Everyone loved what we had gotten out of the quest.

My cousin and Kate's brother, Sam, was ripped away from his playboy ways. After years and years of being a self-proclaimed "player", he met Aiden's sister, Swift. She was in the Roman military, was tough as nails, and loved him with all of her heart. And Sam was utterly head over heels.

I got my safety and my feeling of security back, no matter the scars and trust issues I would hold with me for the rest of my life. And I also got Aiden.

He was everyone's dream. Girls all over the world wanted an Aiden. A gorgeous, mysterious solider who would protect the people he loved with his life.

He had almost lost his life for me…

As he sat across from me on the dock, a soda can pressed to his lips, I caught sight of the scar as he stretched out and his shirt rose.

It sent chills down my spine as I remembered sitting by his bedside after he got hurt. The feeling of dread and guilt suddenly consumed me as I thought about those hours that had ticked away as I prayed and prayed he would just open his eyes.

"You're staring," his voice was soft, a sympathetic smile on his lips as he tugged his shirt back down.

"Why are you never mad at me? I gave you that scar," I motioned towards him, and he shook his head. I said it in a casual way, maybe even teasing. But we both knew it wasn't like that. I was serious. Every time I saw that scar, I was flooded with new guilt.

And it was hard to miss.

"_You _didn't. Chester did. And I would do it over again, Charlie," he lifted up his shirt to show the only thing that could truly be considered an imperfection with Aiden.

A scar on his torso, not very wide or too large. Raised from his skin. Painful even to look at.

It sat on his golden abs as if it was a pen mark on that perfect paper you had just written.

I had heard girls talk about it before. Some of them thought it was sexy, just added more. Others claimed that it was the only thing they considered a flaw on him.

I wasn't sure why I loved it. If it was the fact that the scar was one of the only reasons I was still alive. If it brought back memories of how he was willing to die for me. Or if it was the only thing that made him less perfect, more approachable.

"Are you really going to leave tomorrow?" I frowned, running my hands over the uneven dock.

Aiden laughed, shaking his head.

"I have a _job_."

"Quit," I pouted.

"I can't, Kiddo. I'm in the military. I'm on my way to being Praetor. And I have two more years. I can't just quit," he nudged me with his foot.

The fact that Aiden had taken the entire summer off to stay at Camp Half-Blood with me was _big_, and I knew I couldn't really get any more out of him. It would be too far for that workaholic.

"What time do you leave again?" I asked, taking a sip of our contraband Coke.

It had been a farewell gift from a daughter of Hermes. Her idea was that she and Aiden would go sit on the docks or some hidden spot that Aiden may have found, and they would talk as they enjoyed the pack of Coca Cola. By the end of the night, either Aiden will have kissed her, or he would be in love with her and would carry on a relationship with her until he could tell her how he felt the next summer.

Instead, she got a thanks, smile, and very short hug from him before he walked back to his cabin.

Now, he was sharing it with me.

Aiden didn't notice it like I did. Then again, I was slightly jealous of all of these girls that were after him. Yes, I was always the one that he ended up hanging out with when all of the other girls fought for his attention, but it made me wonder about what it would be like when I couldn't be right there with him.

If _Greek_ girls loved him like this, I knew that Roman girls must love him even more. With me on the other side of the country, I worried about the time when he couldn't claim plans with me when a girl tried to ask him out. I was already preparing myself for the iris message where Aiden would tell me all about her, whoever _her_ was.

Just the thought was making me jealous, something that was sadly no longer uncommon.

I used to _never_ get jealous, but sometimes I just couldn't help it. Especially when it came to Aiden.

"Five am," he said, his voice calm and placid. As he always did when it was a serious subject, his word seemed careful, spoken in an emotionless monotone. His eyes showed nothing more than he wished them to convey, and his body language seemed almost obsolete. He was sitting across from me on the dock, holding a can, and not doing much of anything.

"That's early," I tried to recreate what he was doing. My eyes tried to cloud the emotion behind them. My voice tried to even itself. My body language tried to show nothing.

But Aiden was much better than me at it.

"It was either leave tonight or early tomorrow," he cracked a smile.

"Fine, fine," I rolled my eyes, and I glanced up at the sky. It was night now.

How did that happen?

If I closed my eyes, it felt like I was back at breakfast this morning. Tired from getting up early to enjoy the entire day with Aiden. I expected to open my eyes and be taking a sip of my soda for caffeine. Or maybe it would be later in the day when he was helping her with archery. Or the arena when he was working her hard. Maybe the lake when they went swimming.

Anything but now.

Anytime but hours before he was supposed to leave.

"I should probably go to bed, you know," Aiden said awkwardly, running the now empty can through his hands as if he was trying to find a secret to it.

"Yeah," my voice was absent, staring at the stars.

Aiden looked away, biting his lip, and we stayed like that for a little while before Aiden stood, towering over me. With the moon behind him, it almost looked like a halo.

"You said you wanted me to take you flying sometime, right?" he said anxiously, and I sat up, slowly standing.

"Yeah…" I looked at him a little warily.

"Now is sometime."

And, just like that, the golden glow of the tattoo on wings on his neck sprouted out to be real wings. They were small, growing at a faster pace than ever before. When they reached the right size, the pristine, snow white wings flapped once.

Aiden's lips formed a smirk.

"Wanna come?" he held out his hand, and I smiled as I took it. In one swift move, both of his arms wrapped around me, pulling me close, and he said softly into my ear, "Hold on tight."

Then we were off.

Aiden's wings flapped as we flew into the sky as I let out a terrified and delighted yell as we first flew up, and he began to laugh as he threatened to drop me.

"Aiden!"

"Don't worry," he laughed harder, bringing me closer to the lake as we sped in circles, "I gotcha, I gotcha."

_**Noah,**_

There was something about the last few mornings of summer. Maybe it is that this is your last chance to sleep really. That the nights will get longer and the days shorter. That the vivacious spirit of summer is about to end.

Whatever it was, they felt… _better_.

Of course, that might have come from my night before.

Charlie was always busy with Aiden, and the time for my girlfriend, Kate, and me to spend some quality time together before our schedules got crazy was getting shorter. Kate was going to be a sophmore in college this year, and I was going to continue playing soccer professionally in New York. Her roommate was Adriane, her best friend last year who didn't yet know we were together. Kate had lost touch with her over the summer when Adriane went on some retreat she signed up for last fall. Kate hoped that she had gotten over her big crush on me and that everything would be alright, but we weren't betting on it. I also lived with Kate's brother and his girlfriend who had moved in at the beginning of the summer.

When it was just the bachelor pad, this arrangement was great. Sam and I had been best friends since I was four years old, and we always would be. We worked together, grew up together, and lived together. During this summer though, things changed. Sam stopped being a party animal and a well-known player for a girl he met named Swift. She was the opposite of his type, serious, intimidating, a Roman, and a girl who was too smart to fall for his tricks. Somehow, though none of us can figure out exactly how, they ended up together. Happily even. Swift was great for Sam, and Sam was great for Swift. She left her secret job in New Rome and decided to move to New York. Until we figured everything out, she was staying here, but it didn't seem like she was leaving anytime soon.

Having to live with a couple was awkward enough. Adding in the fact that you are dating your roommate's sister makes it harder.

I had always loved Kate. It took almost losing her to realize it, but I didn't say anything for years. Then, one day, she was attacked by a monster. She almost died. With what she thought would be her last words, she told me she loved me. When she woke up, I told her the same, and we have been happy ever since.

I want to spend the rest of my life with Kate.

Yesterday, the two of us decided to spend the day together. We stayed in New York, doing all of the tourist things that we had never done before and things that we hadn't done since we were children. For lunch, we went to the ice cream shop that I adored as a little kid, where my parents used to switch me out for whenever one had custody. For dinner, we went to the pizza place we went to as teenagers.

Yesterday was one of those days I was convinced I _must_ have seen in one of those romantic comedies that Charlie used to put on. It was perfect.

And it was made even better by waking up with Kate in my arms.

She let out a cute "Mmm" as her grey eyes began to blink open. Her light brown hair spilled onto the bed almost like a halo. My old tee shirt for my high school soccer team hung off of her. As her eyes greeted my room-and me-, her lips formed a small but happy smile.

"I fell asleep."

I laughed, nodding as my arms instinctively wrapped around her.

"I like it when you sleep here. You're cute in the mornings."

"I'm cute in the mornings?" she laughed, shaking her head, "Love is blind, my dear."

She kissed my lips softly and quickly.

I smiled, kissing her cheek, and she laughed. I began to play with her hair, looking at her.

"Why don't you sleep over more often?"

"Your roommate," she said softly, turning on her side to better look at me.

I sighed, closing my eyes tightly as I began to remember through my _Kate Haze_ that I had been living with her brother for a year.

"Swift _lives_ here. It is a bit hypocritical for him to get mad my girlfriend slept over," I tried, and she shook her head.

"Being hypocritical really will stop Sam," she rolled her eyes, her voice drenched in sarcasm, and I had to agree, "Anyway, _your_ girlfriend is his _sister_. That only works if you were Aiden."

"What is it with this family? We all like each other's sister!" I grumbled, and she laughed.

"Swift is good for Sam," she smiled softly, and I could almost predict what she would say next from the sight of that sneaky little grin.

She had been teasing me about Aiden and Charlie.

Charlie had always been like my baby. I was six years older than her, and I had been overprotective of her from the time she had been born. This summer, Charlie had been trying to prove to me that she didn't need me to treat her like a baby anymore, and it almost killed me. But I was determined I wouldn't do it anymore.

I was trying, I really was.

But Charlie liking Aiden? And Aiden _obviously_ liking her back?

It was almost too much. I needed baby steps. This was a jump off a cliff.

"And you'll probably like Aiden one day, you know. When you realize that Charlie could have ended up with _much_ worse guys."

I shook my head, trying to pull my thoughts away from Charlie with other guys.

"Like the ones _you dated_."

"You never liked one of my boyfriends. Not _one_. I dated your best friend, and you just began to hate him," Kate laughed.

"Because I knew a better guy you should have been with," I flashed a smirk, and Kate wrapped her arms around my neck like an excited kid. Her grin was so happy it almost seemed wild, and she kissed my lips. It wasn't controlled or gentle, when she was trying to control herself. No, she just kissed me.

I was sliding into it, losing my control as I kissed her deeper.

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Suddenly, Kate's lips ripped away from me, and she almost fell out bed trying to get to her phone on the night stand. I propped myself up on my shoulder, grumbling. She held her cell phone up, turning off the alarm.

"I worried I might stay over tonight instead of leaving like I was _supposed_ to," Kate threw her legs over the side of the bed, standing up. I tried to pull on her arm, but she rolled her eyes, "They will see me, and you _know_ that is awkward."

"Stay," I whined.

She slid on a pair of jeans, still wearing my tee shirts, and I smiled to myself as I got out of bed. I pulled on a pair of sweatpants, zipping up a hoodie.

"You look good in my clothes," I pulled Kate towards me, kissing her forehead.

"Don't even," she shook her head, pulling away, and Kate began to laugh as she walked out the door.

I followed after her, deciding I would walk her home.

During the summer, she was usually at Camp Half-Blood. When she wasn't, she was back at her childhood home. If I didn't go along, she would just take a cab and get through the trip pretty quickly. If I went with her, it meant stopping on the way. Eating. Most likely deciding to do something else. Hanging out at her house. If her mom was there, it meant possible teasing and definite sweet treats. Her mom owned a bakery, and she loved making treats for her family.

"_Crap_," Kate muttered.

Swift was in the living room, decked out in her usual black. Her black hair hair was tied up in a tight ponytail, the kind that looked like it had hurt to make. Her long and lean body was leaned over, stretching to touch her toes. Her abdomen was exposed in her black sports bra, and you could see some of her tattoos. Swift was in perfect physical condition, and she wasn't letting it go of it. She was trying to kick her Roman ways, but she was still up at five in the morning and ready for a jog. By the time we were waking up, she had usually finished her entire workout routine and was already in the shower.

Her workout pants hugged her body, and I had a vague memory of Sam commenting he wished she wore them every day. She had rolled her eyes at the time, but I had noticed that she had since bought more and worn them more often.

"Walk of shame?" Swift laughed, stretching her torso as she looked at the two of us.

"Don't tell Sam," Kate shook her head hurriedly, and Swift nodded as she looked at the two of us, straightening up.

Swift was trying, but she still had her intimidating ways. Her stance wasn't that of war, but it wasn't peaceful. It was still calculating, preparing to strike whenever it was needed. She trusted us, I know she did. But she still felt out of her element here. She was supposed to be doing the dirty work that New Rome wanted unseen, not getting the laundry together.

It would take her time, and she may never be absolutely calm.

"Don't worry, I won't tell him. Besides, I'm wearing these. He won't ask," she put her hands on her hips, motioning towards her black workout pants.

Kate clutched her stomach and wrinkled her nose as she thought about it, and I wasn't taking it too well either.

"_Ew._"

"On that note, let's leave before Sam wakes up," I took Kate's hand, and I began to pull her to the door.

"Why are you leaving before Sam wakes up?"

We all froze.

We looked back, and there he was.

Sam stumbled out of his room, ruffling his hair. He was shirtless, showing a tattoo on his waist that read _Theodora_. I had thought they had been kidding, but I came home home one day and they were both moaning and groaning about the pain of their latest had matching tattoos of each other's formal first name. Sam had Swift's real name, Theodora, and Swift had Samuel written in matching cursive on their waists.

He was pouring himself a cup of coffee as he looked back at us.

"Oh gods," he muttered, staring at Kate, and he looked away for a moment before going to the top cabinet. His hands wrapped around a bottle of Vodka, and he poured a bit into his coffee before taking a large gulp. He took a deep breath, looking back at the two of us.

Kate and I had been dating all summer, but I almost felt like I should be on the opposite side of this situation. While Sam took a shot of Vodka, I felt like I should have been preparing to kill the suitor of Kate. I should have had my arms crossed, my eyes fixed in a glare that could kill.

Instead, I was the boyfriend.

For the first time, Sam and I were at opposite sides of something. We wouldn't be the same again. He was still my best friend, and I was his. But things were different. For both of us. Sam was in love. He had grown up, and so had I. We couldn't go back to before this summer, and we never could.

We were happy in our lives, and it wasn't like they were completely separate. We would always be like brothers, and we would always be close.

But we could feel it.

"Alright, I know you two sleep together. I can handle that. I know you guys are together and happy. But do you have to come out of his room in the morning in his clothes?" Sam whined, and Kate smirked.

"Your girlfriend is telling us all about how you love her workout pants," Kate crossed her arms.

Sam turned a bright red, and his eyes moved to Swift with a questioning look.

"You're wearing his clothes!" he pointed at my shirt that was hanging on her body.

"_Workout pants_," Kate shook her head, crinkling her nose.

Swift rolled her eyes, and she took Sam's arm, wrapping it around her.

"Both of you knew your sibling was sleeping with someone in this room. Calm down," Swift rolled her eyes, and I smiled at Swift.

"I agree with her."

Sam rolled his eyes as his arm tightened around around his girlfriend, and his hand moved to rest on her waist.

"So, where were you two going when you said you needed to sneak out from me?" Sam asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I was just taking Kate home."

"Are you going to tell Dad where you were then?" Sam laughed.

Kate rolled her eyes, her hand reaching out to mine. I accepted her hand in mind, squeezing it. I resisted the urge to bring her hand to my lips and kiss it as I usually did.

"Come on, Noah, let's go home," she started to pull me out of the door, and I closed it behind me.

As we got into the elevator, Kate stared at the door, shaking her head.

"Workout pants," she crinkled her nose.

"About that, have you ever considered wearing those short of pants?" I teased.

Kate turned and glared at me.

"You were looking at her butt, weren't you?"

"She was facing us!" I laughed, "How could I look at her butt?"

"But you _do_ look at her butt."

"Good gods, your butt is my favorite butt, okay?" I rolled my eyes, kissing her cheek.

"Alright, but I know you like her butt…." she sang.

* * *

**So, I will actually be skipping two years, but I wanted to show where they were at the end of the summer. I am not really sure why I did, but I did.**

**Also, for anyone new joining this line there have been two stories before this. You've Got Mail, which was the original. Then, there was All is Fair in Love and War, which was the sequel. You don't need to read either, but they are out there if you would like to read it. I hope you enjoyed this.**

Also, I would love some help with the description? I have no idea what to put there to gain some new readers and just make people want to read my story. I would love feedback!


	2. Chapter 2

_**Three Years Later…**_

**Charlie,**

"Remember, you are still under my control until the bell rings," Mrs. Greyson told us.

She was a woman in her late thirties with blonde hair that had lost its youth and maintained a bland color. Her eyes were a dull brown, hidden behind black rim glasses. Her body was thin and athletic, and she only ate salads and had strict rules against carbs even being in her classroom. Among many other strict rules.

I could remember being a little girl, sitting on the leather sofa in the living room that felt giant to me at the time. I was watching one of those teen movies, dreaming about what it would be like when I was sixteen years old like the girls in those movies.

I knew exactly what I would be like. I would have pretty blonde curls like my mom, flouncy and soft and pretty. I would have magically learned the tricks to make-up all of the other girls had picked up somewhere along the way of growing up. I would dress pretty, not girly really. That cool sort of way that the girls in those movies dressed, somewhat edgy and fun but not too crazy. I would have this best friend I would do everything with, and my car would be the car we drove for all of our many adventures. I would have a boyfriend, too.

In my young state, I thought that the world was everything you saw in the movies, but I was wrong.

High school was not fun. We did not have endless time between classes to talk and create drama to be resolved by the credits. At sixteen, you didn't have the freedom you expected, and you didn't automatically get the hot guy you've liked for years to realize his love for you and ask you to the prom. The good guys didn't always win. In fact, high school was known for the opposite happening.

There was only one thing that those movies had gotten right.

You had to have an evil teacher.

There were no exceptions. Everyone got that horrible teacher they hated for the rest of their life. You blotted their picture out of the yearbook and prayed to never see them again.

My hated teacher was Mrs. Greyson.

My freshmen year, I had somewhat liked all of my teachers. Mr. Lewis, my Geometry teacher, could be a little harsh, but nothing more than complaints at lunch with my friends came about from that. Then, my Sophomore year, I got my new schedule with Mrs. Greyson's name written in my fourth period.

Mrs. Greyson was a legend. She was the meanest teacher in the school, feared and hated by all. It seemed that everyone had _something_ to say about her, even if they hadn't been put in her class. They had a story, even if it was passed down from another student.

As goes the urban legend, she was once a sweet teacher. Thirteen years ago, she came to this school as a young, vivacious twenty-five year old. She was beautiful. Her hair seemed to shimmer like gold in the light, and her brown eyes were full of emotion and had no glasses in front of them. Her body was youthful and kept thin, and she dressed the school uniform well. Even more, she had a big diamond wedding ring on her finger and a smile on her face.

The story went that, seven years ago, her husband left her for a twenty-two year old, a former student of hers. Afterwards, she was never the same. She got a good amount of his money, living well. She kept his name and never remarried. Instead, she let her hair go dull, and her eyes lost their spark.

And she became mean as a snake.

When I first heard the story my third week of school, I felt a pang of sympathy for her. Suddenly, there seemed to be more to it, and I even began to feel guilty for being so quick to judge. Walking into the classroom that day, I decided that I wasn't going to hate her, that I would give her a chance.

By the end of the class period, all sympathy for her was gone, and I was back to hating her.

"Dean!" Mrs. Greyson's voice sounded through the classroom like a whip, and it made me cringe. Terrance Dean froze. Mrs. Greyson only called people by their last name, and it made you fear your own last name. Terrance slid his phone back into his pocket as Mrs. Greyson stood.

"I could take that phone for the summer. Don't let me catch you with it again."

I looked back to my school laptop, afraid to look at Mrs. Greyson as if she was Medusa.

A chat on my laptop popped up.

**Emily-Rose: Crazy much?**

I smiled to myself.

Emily-Rose was my best friend, and she had been my entire life. Our parents had been friends, and our mothers even went into labor on the same day. She was born on May 3rd, and I was born at midnight, making my birthday May 4th.

Emily-Rose had been forced to endure Mrs. Greyson with me this year, and I was thankful for that. I couldn't have done it without her.

**Charlie: Just a few more minutes, and we're done with her.**

**Emily-Rose: I should be celebrating, not babysitting. **

The twins.

River and Basil were seven years old. As children, they had been like little terrors born with angel faces. Their hair was bright red, like Emily-Rose's, and they were fashioned in little ringlets. Their eyes were dark green, and their skin held the light green tint that their mother, Juniper, had passed down. Though they vaguely had similarities to Christmas decorations, they were adorable.

And somewhat evil.

Over the years, they had somewhat matured. We thanked Scooby Doo for becoming their obsession instead. They weren't completely cured yet.

Emily-Rose's parents, Grover and Juniper, owned a health-food store in an urban and popular area of the city. This year, Emily-Rose had learned to drive, and, three weeks ago, her sixteenth birthday was met with a light green electric car. It seemed perfect until it was also announced that she would pick up her little brothers from school everyday from this point on. Her parents used the excuse that it was better for the planet for them to waste resources, but the idea of saving the world, though it was something she could use when complaining about my non-electric car and how it was hurting us all, it wasn't much of a consolation to Emily-Rose.

**Charlie: You can drop them at home and come hang out?**

**Emily-Rose: We have to get you all packed up. You need to look good for his return, you know ;)**

I stopped.

Aiden.

She was talking about Aiden.

I had known Aiden for three years. He was my best friend. Since our first summer together, we tried to work in time that we could see each other. It was easy to just spend my fall break with him and his spring break with me. It made the next few years look as though they would be easy.

But, two years ago, Aiden became praetor of New Rome. He was amazing at it as I knew he would be, and I was proud of him. He had been working for it for years, this is what he had always wanted. His leadership helped the people of New Rome. He had become the man that his mentor years ago had planned he would be.

Aiden's plan was clear.

He started training when he was six years old. He joined a secret branch of the Roman military, the place where the dirty jobs that need to be kept away from everyone were taken care of. Meanwhile, he arose as a well-known and well-liked public figure. The summer he turned sixteen, he ran to become a Praetor. He gracefully waited for the prior praetor to leave his position, not creating a stink beforehand, and he won by a landslide.

For the last two years, that was his life.

Now eighteen, he had step down and endorsed a new praetor. A few weeks ago, he called me and said that he would be at the camp tomorrow. I had no idea how long he was staying, but I didn't care yet. I would start dreading the end of days later. I could just enjoy being close to him while I could.

**Charlie: You're insane, you know that?**

**Emily-Rose: But you love me ;)**

"Class," Mrs. Greyson popped me out of my thoughts, and my eyes shot up to look at her.

She waited until we were silent, which didn't take long. Whenever you heard her yell, you just stopped whatever you were doing.

"You are leaving my class today," she began, slowly pacing the room. I instinctively closed my chat, not even having to look. She had paced around the room before, "I need you to not make me look bad out there, do you understand?" her eyes surveyed us all.

I froze, and my eyes moved to the clock, desperately waiting.

_Come on, come on, come on!_

"You all will be Juniors-"

_BRIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGG!_

I had never heard anything so sweet. We all jumped out of our seats, throwing our laptops in bags and running out of the door.

"Wait, I did not release you!" she called out angrily.

"Nobody gives a damn!" one student called out, and we all cheered him on as we hurried out of the class.

As we got out in the hall, everyone was smiling and laughing, and people were suddenly hugging people they had hated all year. If there was one thing that brought you together, it was being in a miserable class with an evil teacher.

"Party at Stan's house tonight!" Stan Lewis yelled out over the commotion, laughing as he called it out.

Everyone in the halls cheered, and I laughed as I went to my locker.

As I spun the combination I knew my heart, I began to think over the last year this had been my locker, that Mrs. Greyson had been my teacher.

My locker was almost empty. Just a shell of the last year of my life. I had taken everything home yesterday so I wouldn't have to carry so much out. There was a pencil bag on the top shelf and a single picture held up on the locker door by a piece of tape.

Carefully, I pried it off, smiling as I looked at the three year old picture.

It was me and Aiden a few days after my prophecy. We went to the beach for awhile as she nursed him back to health. In this picture, he was walking on the beach with me. He was shirtless, showing the scar he had earned saving my life. It was back before he had gotten his third and fourth tattoo, before I had started high school, and before we both had grown up.

Those were the days I realized I loved him.

It was funny to think that I hadn't known all along now. The way I felt about him now, it felt silly that I had ever questioned it before.

I slid the picture safely into my bag as Emily-Rose bounded over to me.

Emily-Rose had grown up well.

When we were younger, she was the petite girl. She was thin, always kind of straight looking, And she was once teased at school for being "too hippie."

Her clothes hadn't changed. She was still wearing bell bottom jeans with flower designs on the bottoms. She still wore tee shirts for whatever new band she was listening to or charity she supported, and she was wearing the same belt made out of willow branches that she had made in sixth grade. She kept her hair in a beanie, and there was always a peace sign on her somewhere.

She had filled out over the years. It had been slowly happening over time, but, the summer before high school, Emily-Rose suddenly just walked into school with a woman's body instead of a girl's. She was taller, now 5'6, which put her at two inches shorter than me. Her eyes had gotten brighter. Her lips had gotten plumper. And she had found some sort of eco-friendly makeup that made her light green skin look like she was glowing.

"Wanna go to Stan's house tonight?" she raised her eyebrows as she put a hand on her hip, smiling.

"No."

"Why not?" her face fell.

"You hate Stan!"

"So? Party. It is the last day of school, we deserve a party after _Mrs. Greyson_."

"You just hope Shane'll be there."

Emily-Rose had spent four years of her life obsessing over Kia. When we were thirteen, Emily-Rose finally started dating him a year after she started liking him. The summer we were fifteen, Kia started changing after he joined his school's baseball team. He dropped his surfer boy attitude and talked about baseball _all the time_. One day, he even _stopped recycling_.

They broke up, and Emily-Rose was heart broken.

For about three weeks. Then Kia got a new girlfriend, a daughter of Aphrodite, and that somehow calmed Emily-Rose. The fact that he would date girls he had once called pretentious was enough to convince Emily-Rose he had changed.

Now, she was fine.

It was as if he had never happened.

"You're just mad Aiden _won't_ be there," Emily-Rose crossed her arms, "We are never going to have this day again! This is the last day of school of your sophomore year. Stop sulking that your boyfriend isn't here."

"He isn't my boyfriend, Emily-Rose, and I am not _sulking_. I just don't want to go to a party," I shrugged.

"I will get you to that party, just you wait," Emily-Rose pointed at me as she walked away, and I laughed as I worked my way through the hallways.

For the rest of the year, everyone had been shuffling through the halls, running into people if they had to, to get out as soon as we could. There was a more annoyed and solemn sense in the halls during those days. Now, things were completely different.

Everyone was yelling and laughing. Parties were being announced. "Screw you!" was being proclaimed to students and teachers alike. Fear had disappeared for everyone except for the seniors.

They were excited, happily exclaiming their freedom.

Yet their feet walked slower. Their eyes took in more around them, a final goodbye to their school. Watching seniors had always made me a little sad, no matter how much I wanted to graduate. I couldn't imagine what it was like to spend a year facing the fact that this was it. Your last everything was happening now, and you were leaving to a new world you had never lived in.

My mind drifted back to Aiden and how he was facing it with retiring from being Praetor, and I found myself wrapping my hands around my phone as I thought about calling him.

Before I could get myself to press the number 1 speed dial on my demigod cell phone, I was at my car. When it was time to trade it my dad's parent-approved Prius, we thought that the new beach boy convertible that fit my dad's new life without small children would be the only vintage car we would get. But my father had picked up on the day I pointed to a woodie and said I loved cars like that, which I did.

It still didn't prepare me for waking up in the morning to see a woodie sitting in the parking space that had once been my brother's parking space.

I slid into the car, throwing my bag on the seat beside me. As I cranked up the car and turned on the radio, I began to think for the millionth time about this summer.

This summer with Aiden.

A smile crept on my lips.

_**Kate,**_

"How about the Hamptons?" the other girlfriends were discussing their summer plans. They all seemed to blend together. Their voices were similar, they looked practically the same, and they all lacked real personalities as far as I had gotten to know them.

Their hair had been overly blow-dryed, most of which dyed a sickly platinum blonde. They were all thin with nips and tucks to create an unnatural barbie doll. They wore a second skin of makeup, and the price of some of their outfits could be a months rent to someone. There was nothing special about each other than sex appeal and the professional soccer player boyfriends/husbands they maintained.

"Jeremy and I rented out a house by the shore for the entire summer," one of the girls, Paige, pushed her tortoise shell, Chanel glasses back to pull her honey blonde hair out of her eyes. She was one of Dr. Boseman's masterpieces, the same maneuvers to make beauty that had been done on women throughout the city, creating frightening similarities.

The bragging game had begun.

Back and forth bragging amongst the women characterized what we did here. Jeremy bought her this. Oh, but Lewis bought her that. Karen is getting this. But Delaney proposed.

When I had first showed up to the group three years ago, everyone had looked at me expectantly. Noah had been one of the most eligible bachelors before we started dating, and the women here wanted to know more about me and about us than what they had read in magazines. They knew my name, knew my family, and knew that Noah adored me. They were convinced I had been showered in gifts, and their curiosity and want to figure out how to out-do me compelled them to ask.

When my answer of Noah gave me his first soccerball as a gift to keep with me when I missed him in my dorm, I was reevaluated by the women there, and I wasn't at their standards. That day, I was fresh out of the shower, my wet hair in a ponytail. I had skipped make-up that morning, and I was wearing the same clothes as the day before except for a sweatshirt of Noah's because I spent the night with him.

I had been forgotten ever since.

But my situation was nothing compared to Swift's.

Three years ago, Sam was a womanizer, specifically into the type of women around me today. They were all convinced that they were going to get him. It became like a competition. Whoever could get Sam to settle down won. They knew that it had to be the prettiest, blondest, best endowed, sexiest, and most convincing women that would do the job. Sam had far too great of a reputation to do any less.

And, then, one summer, he met a girl.

Swift.

Who he loved more than anything in the world. She straightened him out, and he made her relax. They were a match made in heaven, fitting together like two puzzle pieces. She was what we had all prayed he would find, and they fell in love instantly. It was never casual, always serious.

After a few weeks of dating, Swift quit her secret job in the Roman military for him. She decided to move to New York to be closer to him, and she moved in with Noah and Sam "temporarily" while looking for a place. She never moved out.

They were nearing their third year anniversary, and they had even started talking about _marriage_, which we all thought would _never_ happen.

If I thought I stuck out like a sore thumb, then Swift was a billboard with the word "DIFFERENT" in giant letters.

Swift sat beside me, her lips pursed. Her long black hair was tumbling around her, and her piercing blue eyes ran over the women as if suddenly realizing Sam would have ended up with a woman like _that_ id she had never come along. Her thin, athletic figure was shown off in her black jeans, tank top, and leather bomber jacket. All except for the one on her hip of _Sam_ that she seemed to be showing as if rubbing it in that she had scored the big prize.

"Swift, right?" Paige turned around, looking at the two of us. If this was high school, Paige would have been the bitch we all hated and talked about during lunch, glaring as we decided that she would never amount to anything other than a short-term wife of a rich man who would have only a hefty alimony check every month to show for success. Or pregnant by sixteen.

But she had already bypassed the sixteen one.

"Penny, right?" Swift raised her eyebrows, a smirk on her lips. Swift had always hated Paige.

The way that Swift meant Paige was at a party for the soccer players, when Paige was sipping on an Appletini and shamelessly flirted with Sam.

"_Paige."_

"Oh. Right," Swift's eyes ran over her, and Paige glared.

"What are _you and Sam_ doing for the summer?" Paige asked.

"Well, we_ were_ going to the Hamptons, but that place is so lame. Too _typical_."

Paige's eyes narrowed in on Swift, and Swift's arms crossed, giving her the menacing stare that could make anyone back down. Anyone _but_ Paige.

Her ruby red lips were starting to say something when the guys walked in. Sam walked over to Swift, giving her a kiss on the cheek, and Swift's petty rivalry was forgotten for something more important.

Or maybe it wasn't. The girls may have kept glaring at each other for all I knew, but I didn't care anymore.

"Hey, you," Noah's arm wrapped around my waist, and his hand rested on my hip as he kissed my temple.

"Took you long enough. They're talking about the Hamptons," I sighed, my eyes running over all of them, and Noah just smiled as he shook his head.

"The season is over. You can hate them when we get back," Noah was shouldering his workout bag as he began to walk with me, "Let's go home."

When we had started dating, I was going into my Sophomore year of college. My freshman year, I had been roommates with a girl named Adriane, who was also a half-blood. We became the college roommates who swore that we were like sisters, and we just knew that we would always be there for each other. And I think we would have if it hadn't been for the fact she had liked Noah. She met him when he came to visit, and I had denied ever liking him. Anyone else could see I didn't just like him but I loved him, but Adriane chose to see what she wanted. And what she wanted was to see no limits on Noah, fair game.

When I started dating him over the summer, Adriane acted as if I had broken the girl code. As if I had stolen him, though she swore we were perfectly fine. I pretended to buy it, and we moved back to school, sharing a room once more. By Spring Break, I had basically moved in with Noah because I hated being at the room. I knew that I couldn't keep living with her. One day, Noah made a joke that we should just skip to it and move in together.

Somehow, the next week, we were curled up in bed and looking at apartments online.

Mt. Olympus Architecture Company, which our parents owned, had just redone an older building, and we rented out an apartment.

My father didn't approve at first. He didn't speak to me for a few weeks, and he refused to even acknowledge Noah. But my mother reminded him of them, how they met in college and fell in love. Somehow, she got him to accept it, and he had completely forgotten how upset he was about it by now.

"Hey, so, how have you been handling being a graduated girl?" Noah asked as he unlocked our front door. Noah carried his soccer bag to our bedroom, and I shucked off my shoes by the door.

I loved our apartment. There was a charm to it that only could come from an older building, like the uneven exposed brick or the uneven texture of the hardwood floors. But we weren't trapped back in the past. Though it was trying to be vintage, it was the kind of vintage that everyone liked, not the one where you immediately thought "_Gut this place. Now._"

But I really didn't think that I would like this place as much if it hadn't been for the fact that this was my apartment with Noah.

We had moved in our boxes on our own. We had picked out the furniture, fought over which dining table we wanted, and had agreed on where to put everything. It was _ours_. Our apartment. Our life. Our relationship.

It was us.

"It isn't that much different," I laughed as put my bag on the counter, "Hey, cook or Chinese food?"

I was trying to distract from the subject of Post-Graduation.

When I started NYU, I had a plan. As a double major (screenwriting and business), I worked my ass off, and I did great. I would get a job, working on a show or maybe a movie. It wasn't until I had graduated that I realized I was a dime a dozen. My father said he would help me out, he had all of the right connections afterall. I declined. I wanted to at least _try_ on my own first.

But then there was JoJo, Noah's mom. Noah's step-father was Henry Alexander, a chef turned daytime talk show host. I had always hated JoJo, and she had never really liked me. I reminded her of Annabeth, who she had always been jealous of. Her jealousy had resulted in Noah, and I was a reminder to JoJo that Annabeth had weaseled her way back into Percy's life and her sons.

When I started dating Noah, she tried to get me to like her, something she had thus far failed miserably at. I couldn't look at her and not be reminded about how she treated Noah when we were younger. That look of disappointment on his face still made me want to suddenly hug him tight just thinking about it.

JoJo suddenly had something she thought she could give me, and she just kept offering it, saying she could help me out. But I _refused_ to accept _her_ help.

We didn't really need the money, I would tell myself. We were doing fine.

But I wanted to work. Living off of Noah's money made me feel like I was turning into Paige, and I couldn't stand having _any _similarities with her.

"Let's order in Chinese," Noah smiled as he walked into the kitchen.

I threw him the menu, laughing.

"So, what did you do today?" he asked, but he already knew the answer. We both did.

"Nothing much. Just looked for a job."

"We're fine, Kate. I don't want you to worry about anything," Noah wrapped his arms around my waist, kissing my cheek.

"But I want to work. I don't want you to pay for everything all the time. I am living here, I should at least pay half the rent," I whined, and he shook his head.

"Uh-uh. I'm going to marry you one day, what is yours is mine," he kissed my neck.

"I should probably take up on JoJo's offer…."

Noah spun me around to look at him, knowing this was serious if I would agree to _that_.

"What's wrong? Really?"

I looked down, shrugging.

"Paige, Jeremy's girlfriend, said she was proud of me. I had you so wrapped around my finger, I could get anything I wanted," I shook my head, " I love you. I don't want to be _that girl_."

"Well, Paige is a slut. She is sleeping with Rielly, you know. She is _nothing_ compared to you," Noah hugged me, smiling, "Now, stop worrying. Let's just order Chinese food, watch reruns for hours, and get ready for camp."

"I love you, Noah Jackson," I smiled, kissing his lips softly.

"I love you, too…" he kissed my neck before picking up his phone to order Chinese food.

_**Charlie,**_

**You're missing a killer party. Kevin is asking where you are. Get your ass over here! -Emily-Rose**

I looked at the text message on my cell phone, rolling my eyes. Those messages had been coming in for the last half-hour. I could imagine Emily-Rose now, wearing that green party dress we bought last week together for our birthday party. While music blared and people laughed, she was out on the dance floor, shaking her pale-green ass to the music as she brought out her cell phone to tell me how much fun she was having without me.

I had been waiting for two hours for his call, and I hadn't gotten anything.

At first, I could convince myself it was something else. But now I knew exactly what I was standing around for.

I was waiting for Aiden to call. I wasn't even sure why. He missed calling a lot, so did I. But tonight felt different. He was coming tomorrow. I felt like we should be talking about how much we missed one another. Something-_anything-_ that would show me that he had missed me like I had missed him.

_Nothing_.

An answer in itself.

I forced my mind back to the party where Emily-Rose would laugh at someone twerking, the newest dance she hated. Of course, we luckily forgot about a few months ago before it became popular when Emily-Rose was doing it and just calling it something else.

"I am not going to wait any longer," I decide, getting up from my bed. I go to my closet, looking through the outfits, and I smirk to myself as I bring out the grey, beaded mini dress that Aphrodite gave me. It was during Spring Break, when I was with Aiden. My dad disapproved, but my mom kept it in the back of my closet.

Until now, I had never thought of breaking it out, but I was going to tonight. I slid on the short dress, pulling on a pair of three inch silver heels to match. As I pulled on a leather bomber jacket, I ran a brush through my hair and applied ruby red lipstick.

Looking in the mirror, I couldn't deny it.

I was all grown up. I wasn't a little girl anymore. And I wasn't going to be _that_ girl either.

I was going to go out tonight, I was going to look good. I was going to even talk to Kevin, even if it was just so Emily-Rose could tell Aiden when he got here. I was _not_ going to wait around all day and hope that he calls.

As I was walking out of my room and grabbing my keys from my desk, I looked at the latest picture of me and Aiden together, just a mere two months old. It was so shiny compared to all of the others around it, so new. It showed him now, not the fifteen year old I had met years ago.

For a brief moment, I lost my resolve. But I worked it back up, and I was strutting out of the house before I knew it, calling out to my parents in another room that I was leaving. I thanked the gods as soon as I was safely out of the door without them seeing my outfit, and I was unlocking my car to drive when I suddenly decided that I was really going to go out tonight and drink. I put my keys in my purse and started walking to the nearby subway system.

It wasn't long before I was packed into an apartment, people dancing along to a thudding beat. Emily-Rose's laugh had turned into a giggle after her third Vodka shot, and she had lost her high heels somewhere in the crowd. She handed me a drink or two, maybe even three. And I drank them because Emily-Rose was right. I couldn't get tonight back.

"Oh my God, like, look at Kevin," Emily-Rose's girly giggle was infectious as she leaned into my ear, yelling over Maroon5 and their latest hit. She was pointing at a guy a year older than us, now a senior. He held up a drink to his lips, and he winked as he caught my eye.

This was easy, Emily Rose had told be another time before, I could just have Kevin and stop having to work for Aiden. Maybe it would make Aiden jealous, and he would see the light.

Emily-Rose wouldn't have been serious any other time because she knew I never would have done it any other time, but I had come tonight. Dressed in a mini dress my dad didn't approve of and three inch heels. I had accepted the drinks she had offered them instead of volunteering myself to be the designated driver. I was doing things outside of the Charlie norm, and I wasn't even sure why.

Vaguely, I think Aiden had something to do with it. But I couldn't figure that out when I was sober, so especially not now.

"I am not getting with him. Get over it," I said, having to yell into Emily-Rose's ear.

"_Just go talk to him_," Emily-Rose whined, and I could see Shane out of the corner of my eye, not dancing with anyone. That was where she was going while sending me off.

"Fine," I muttered, and I started walking off to the Senior, thinking about the way the other girls glared at me. They would have all loved to have been me. In the best, sexiest dress there that wasn't past the line of trashy. About to go up and talk to Kevin, _a senior_, who was pretty much the holy grail to them. And with absolutely no fear about it.

Maybe it really was an accident, or maybe a girl decided she just didn't want me to be too lucky tonight because a girl ran into me and almost knocked me down, her beer spilling all over my shoes. I muttered my annoyance, walking off to the bathroom without the line, one that had once held horny teenagers hooking up just a little while ago from what I heard circulating the gossip of the party.

I pulled off my shoes in the bathroom, locking the door, and I looked at myself in the mirror. My mascara was slightly smeared, my curls were a little wild, and I had been sweating from dancing. I looked like the girl at a party I had always shaken my head at, being so much more mature than that.

I sighed, and that was it. I was sobered up, letting the water run on my one hundred dollar shoes and wondering why on earth I wore them to a high school party in the first place.

My vision remained hazy, but I could see enough to know that this was stupid. That I was acting stupid.

"Charlie?"

I jumped, falling on my butt in a _thud_.

My eyes scanned up to see that there was an Iris message in front of me, looking down on me as I was in a heap on the floor . _Aiden _was looking at me.

If I had felt stupid before, I suddenly felt like an idiot.

The Iris message followed me to be on eye level.

And there he was. Eighteen year old Aiden Cinna, my best friend. He was looked casual instead of his usual regal and powerful. He was wearing an old tee shirt I remembered him buying with me at the beach about a year ago. His blonde hair was messy, and his eyes looked tired. I was suddenly questioned what time it was. It didn't feel late, but Aiden was three hours behind me and looked exhausted. I sneaked a glance at my phone and saw that it was two AM, which was way past my eleven PM curfew.

"Hey, what's up?" I forced myself to smile, sitting up and trying not to look like I had been drinking. Maybe if I tried small-talk, he would get distracted.

"What are you _wearing_?" Aiden laughed, looking at me. I couldn't tell if it was appreciative and that he thought I looked good or not.

_He didn't get distracted._

I laughed, pushing my hair out of my eyes, "I'm at a party. Emily-Rose made me come."

Lie.

But I wasn't telling him that I suddenly decided to become someone else for the night because it took him so damn long to call.

"You look good, a little…" Aiden raised his eyebrows, smirking, "_Different_."

"I look drunk, don't I?" I sighed, realizing that Aiden had never seen me drunk. Until now.

In honesty, I wasn't sure that I actually had been like this before. I didn't drink, didn't go to many parties, or anything like that.

"Little bit. How much have you had?" Aiden's voice was protective, becoming the adult in our relationship again.

"Three, I think."

"You look… tired."

I think that was his polite way of saying I needed to go home.

"I need to be getting home right about now," I tried to get up, and, to my embarrassment, I slipped on a nearby towel and landed back on my butt. I closed my eyes, horrified, and I put my head in my hands.

Aiden tried not to laugh, pulling a worried face, but he couldn't help it. He broke out in laughter, covering his mouth as if hiding his mouth would suddenly hide it from me.

"You know, if I were there, I'd be picking you up and carrying you home over my shoulder, probably giving you a lecture," Aiden laughed, making me grin, and he let out a smirk, "Or I'd be laughing."

"Maybe I could get you to come to the darkside and be drunk right beside me. I decided to give it a try tonight. I could get you drinking, laughing, and even…" I faked a gasp, "_dancing_."

Aiden faked a gasp, "Not _dancing!_"

I laughed harder, wondering if the martini I had been drinking earlier made this funnier.

"You're coming tomorrow," my smile grew.

"I'm coming tomorrow," his grin was just as wide.

"Why can't you come faster?" I whined, playing with one of the beads on my dress. I never looked at someone when I whined, that was what people had told me. I was afraid that, if I whine, I would turn into one of _those_ girls, but that was nothing compared to the fear of meeting someone's eyes as I whined and seeing that they actually thought I was that _that girl_.

"I'll be there soon, I really want to talk to you when I get there, okay?" he smiled through the Iris message, "So don't you dare be hungover."

"See you tomorrow," I let out a wave, laughing slightly.

_**I am wondering if having Charlie drinking was too far, but I just started writing. And that happened. I don't know if I want it there, but I do not want to take it out. I am so sorry this took so long, but I hope the length makes up for it.**_

_**Also, I want to make a special shout out to Google Docs. Without it, this would have taken forever to write because I would only be able to access it at home. Now, I could do it during class when I finished my work, other places with other computers, etc. So, shout out!**_

_**Anyway, I would love feedback. How did you guys think I showed the last three years? Do you like the way Charlie has grown up, Kate and Noah have progressed in their relationship, etc?**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Alright, so this will mainly be a Charlie chapter. Sorry if you wanted more Noah/Kate.**_

_**Charlie**_,

I could remember watching my brother nurse his first hangover. He had been my age, sixteen. I was ten years old, and I wasn't exactly sure what was wrong with him other than Dad was mad. Noah slept later than usual, stumbling out of bed around one and wearing a big hoodie. He cringed at the kitchen light, and he moaned more than I thought necessary. He had no desire in talking, and he chugged down the first coffee and Advil in sight.

_Everyone_ had seen Sam with a hangover, and what I knew about hangovers had come from him. Yet, absolutely _nothing_ had prepared me for my first hangover.

Last night, I managed in without anyone noticing me. Emily-Rose and I took the subway home, and we sneaked past my parent's room and got into bed without them noticing. In my drunken state, I made a promise to myself that I would return the favor to the gods and never have to sneak in again as I slid into slept off our alcohol, and I have to admit that there was more to sleep off than I would like to admit.

By eight AM, my alarm was going off, and it was time to survey the damage.

Emily-Rose and I were sprawled all over the bed, and our make-up was smeared on my grey sheets. The bright green high heels she wore to the party had been lost during the night, as had her jacket. I couldn't remember what I had done with my necklace, and I had slept in my dress.

"Damn," Emily-Rose muttered as we looked at ourselves in the mirror.

As I looked at myself in the mirror, I questioned if I had looked worse. My hair was a mess, my make-up was smeared on my face like abstract art. My dress was twisted on my body, and my I stood in a weird way as my squinty eyes tried to avoid what felt like blinding lights in my bedroom.

Emily-Rose looked just as bad.

It felt strange to see Emily-Rose like this. She usually looked sweet, a gentle and loving face like her mother's. You half expected her to have a bob and be carrying cookies to her sweet little family as the children played together peacefully outside if you saw just her face. So, seeing her in a twisted sequin shirt and small black shorts with missing shoes and smeared make-up.

"I was wearing shoes, right?" she put her hand to her forehead, and I nodded, "Thought so…"

"I need Advil…" I mumbled, and I went to my bathroom, bringing out a bottle. Just hearing the clanging of the pills in the little chamber felt like a mariachi band marching on my eardrums, and I downed two before throwing the bottle to Emily-Rose who was walking in. Just as the pain from the bottle was subsiding, I heard screaming that made me jump.

"Charlie! You should be leaving for camp in an hour!"

Emily-Rose dropped to the ground as if scared by my mom's yells, and I looked down to her, sprawled on my bathroom floor.

"I'll find you some clothes, go take a shower."

Emily-Rose took a shower, and I got my stuff together, getting her clothes out. As soon as she came out, she shimmied into the skinny jeans she had left here once before and an old tee shirt for a charity she had lost her steam for.

"I'll see you at camp. Gotta go get the _twins_," she shook her head as she grabbed her bag, and I noticed a new stain on the _Feed the Children_ canvas bag.

I spent the next half-hour washing the alcohol out of me as if my cucumber-scented body wash would suddenly wash away my hangover. As soon as I got out, I rushed into my shorts, pulled my wet hair into a braid, and my parents helped me put my bags in the car. Though I knew they could tell, they said nothing about my hangover. Just asked if Emily-Rose and I had fun last night.

I knew I should have felt guilty about lying and drinking as I looked at my parents, being so nice about it. But, as my pounding headache hit me again and again, I began to weed through the night before and remember the sobering call from Aiden. He had told me to not _dare_ be hungover when I saw him because he wanted to talk.

I could push away the thought that I had wanted to look absolutely beautiful when I saw him for the first time in two months. After all, we had seen each other both on death's door before, and that hadn't changed our image of the other. Or it hadn't changed my image of him.

No, not being stunning was not my worry.

Aiden wanted to talk. About something serious, and I wanted to be able to have that conversation. What if he wanted to proclaim his love for me in person and I was too busy looking for more Advil to enjoy the moment?

Last night was somewhat hazy.

I could clearly remember before I started drinking, though I still wasn't exactly sure why I decided to go to the party. Bits and pieces stuck out after I took my first few drinks. Dancing with Emily-Rose. Laughing like children. Realizing I had lost one of my earrings. Then there was the call, the sobering moment that was clear. I knew I found Emily-Rose back in the party, and, with my shoes in hand, I pulled her out of the party. We took the subway, and I offered for her to spend the night with me since her parents probably already thought she was doing that.

I didn't want today to be hazy, too.

"Here," my mom slid small bottle into my hand as my father was checking to make sure that the car was safe for his baby girl, which it always was.

I looked at the bottle and recognized nectar. I knit my eyebrows in confusion behind my Ray Bands.

"Cures a hangover," she shrugged, and I opened my mouth to object. But I had nothing to offer back. She was right after all.

I closed my mouth as my dad came back, hugging me tight.

"I love you, Charlotte."

"I love you, too," I hugged him back, smiling softly.

"_Percy_, she needs to _leave_," my mom laughed, putting her hand on his back.

My mom had been better about me growing up. She was more understanding. Growing up, things were the opposite. My father was always the one, trying not to laugh as he would tell my mom to calm down. But, when I was thirteen and almost died from my prophecy, he suddenly saw things in a different light. He was clinging onto when I was a little child, becoming even more overprotective than before. My mom realized I was grown up, that I wasn't a child anymore.

"Bye, Dad," I laughed as I opened the car door, and I carefully slid the bottle of nectar into my cupholder, waiting until I was farther down the road until I downed the sweet liquid.

The familiar burn coursed through me, and I made a face. I had been seven years old when I first tasted nectar, when I had almost died thanks to an attack from Olympia, and I had immediately likened the burning sensation to tasting cough syrup. Nothing could get that out of my head, and I would never enjoy the taste of nectar.

As I drove to camp, I began to get excited. Like a little kid right before Christmas.

We had all summer. Not a quick spring break. Not a visiting long weekend. No convincing myself that Iris messages are really the same as what we would be doing if we were together or maybe even more convenient for the both of us. No reminding myself that we were young and busy, we could have time for each other later.

Because now was later. We had time for each other. He was going to be here all summer.

A silly grin spread across my lips.

_**XXXXXXX**_

"Emily-Woooossseee!"

I could hear Basil and River whine as their sister pulled her smart car into the camper parking lot. Her black Raybands were perched on her nose, an annoyed face painted on her otherwise sweet face. She wasn't wearing make-up, and her dark green hair was tied back in a braid that had dried after taking a shower at my place.

She pressed a button, and they cheered as they opened the car door. She slowly got out of the car as they ran off, and she pointed at me.

"Why do you look so…." her voice lowered a little in case that Basil and River were still in earshot and would spill to her parents, "_not hungover_?"

I held up the now empty bottle of nectar as I got my last bag out of the car.

"Mom gave me a hangover cure."

"Damn you," she glared at me, "What is that and you better have another fucking bottle?"

She spit out her spearmint gum that her parents sold in the store. It was packed in eco-friendly and recycled materials, and it was made with renewable energy. Emily-Rose always gave me the speech about why I should switch to it, and I kept a packet in my bag when she was around. But I thought the spearmint gum was too harsh tasting and preferred my not eco-friendly Orbitz bubble mint gum.

"Nectar," I shrugged as I closed the trunk of my car.

"You are the best friend ever," and just like that, Emily-Rose was off.

I watched go as I shouldered my bag, and I started walking towards the camp, lost in my thoughts. The excitement of seeing Aiden again was turning to a fear bubbling up in me, and I felt like I might throw up.

"Charlie! Hey!"

I almost dropped my bag out of shock.

His voice.

His smooth, calm voice. It didn't show too much emotion, it was still guarded. But it felt friendly and charming. And I could tell the happiness in his voice was genuine. Listening to him when he was happy about being with you made you feel like the most important person in the world.

My churning stomach turned to sweet butterflies, and I turned around, seeing that it really was him. It was Aiden Cinna.

Aiden was 6'3 now, making him about seven inches taller than me. His golden blonde hair seemed to shimmer in the sunlight, and his skin was a gentle tan that made him beam like a ray of sunlight he father gave off. His ocean blue eyes were stormy and mysterious, and even a granddaughter of Poseidon could get lost in those waters. His smile showed off his perfect white teeth, and he was wearing a tee shirt that showed off two of his three tattoos.

The first was his roman tattoo for being involved in the military, marked with his twelve years of service. The other was the angel wings tattoo that turned into actual angel wings if he decide that was what he wanted to do. And then there was his third. It held no ties to the Roman military, it was all his own.

It was a date printed just above his scar, the day that he got it.

I hated thinking about that day, and I felt guilty that he had almost died for me and now had to live with a scar to prove it. And that was why he got the tattoo. As if proving to me that he would have _willingly_ and _permanently _put a reminder of it on his body instead of how he was stuck with one.

That one was hidden because of where his car happened to be. It was on his torso below and to the right of his golden abs.

"Charlie," his smile was wide, and he walked up to me hugging me while I was still caught in my trance. I had seen him almost every night during Iris messages. I had pictures of the two of us all over my walls, and I used to have one hanging on the inside of my locker during the school year. Yet I was still shocked by just how perfect he was.

His perfection used to make me wary of him. There had to be _something_ wrong, I knew there just had to be. And, with all of his successful traits, whatever failing he had must be big. Deal breaker big.

So, I pushed him away in favor of a sarcastic bad boy who was only trying to take me to his mother who wanted to kill me.

Now, I felt stupid for it for more than just the fact Chester had been trying to kill me. How could I have pushed away Aiden? He was practically my life now.

I dropped my bag, hugging him tight. He felt so warm and strong and… well, Aiden.

"Where the hell have you been?" he complained, laughing slightly as he held me tight.

I thought about making up something, but I couldn't help wanting to tell him things when we were together.

"Hung over and miserable," I nuzzled my head into Aiden's chest, "My mom gave me her hangover cure."

"I love your mom," Aiden laughed. My mom loved him, he loved her. My father liked him in ways. If I had just been friends with Aiden, he would have loved him. But I guess my father could tell how I felt about him…

I smiled to myself because I could feel his chest rise and fall with his laughter. Sometimes, I could question if I loved him. Then there were moments like this when I even loved just hearing him breathe.

"Hey, so I'm not hungover. We can talk," I peered up at him, not leaving his arms.

I began to prepare myself for disappointment. I had let myself dream that maybe he was exclaiming his love, that he was taking up on his summer long stay to actually get us together. But I needed to come back to reality.

"Right," he smiled wide, almost beaming as he looked down at me, "So, we've been friends forever, right?"

Two years and a little less than eleven months. To be exact.

I nodded.

"Well-" he ran his fingers through his hair, and a nervous laugh escaped his lips. For a second, my chest swelled with excitement. Maybe I didn't need to

prepare myself for disappointment because this could be it, the moment.

The next few seconds felt like years as I waited for what he would say next.

And then, I heard a loud, bubbly voice break through the trees and shatter my perfect moment.

"They were only selling the big packs of nectar. If I wasn't so hungov-" Emily-Rose was just stepping back to the parking area, and she froze as she saw the two of us.

Aiden's face fell, and he untangled himself from me. I glared at Emily-Rose, who was holding a brown bag with _Camp Half-Blood Store, for all your demigod needs_ written in black.

"Hey, Aiden," Emily-Rose tried, and Aiden took a second but pulled on a somewhat convincing smile.

"If it isn't the trouble maker herself. I heard you got our girl drunk last night," Aiden smirked.

"Hey, she had fun," Emily-Rose winked, nudging me.

I laughed, shaking my head, "You two are crazy. Let's go unpack."

As we began to walk together, I couldn't stop wondering what Aiden had been about to tell me.

**XXXX**

I waited for the rest of the day for Aiden to tell me what he had been about to share when we got to camp. He seemed so close at times. But something always rolled around and put an end to it.

We had been at his cabin the second time, unpacking some stuff, and he was hanging a picture of us on the wall behind his bed when he began on the subject again. His brilliant white smile turned back to look at me, and he seemed excited as he opened his mouth. But then a daughter of Apollo, a rather pretentious hipster by the name of Mika , came in with her boyfriend son of Athena as they were making fun of Twilight and discussing how Hemingway would have been so disappointed with this generation. So, Aiden stopped, and we left the cabin.

On the way to dinner, he seemed to get close again. But then one of his friends from the Ares cabin ran up and began about how he didn't know Aiden was coming this summer. That conversation lasted the rest of dinner.

By now, it was almost lights out, and I had given up on finding out what he was going to tell me. I decided to just enjoy the time with my friends.

During the summer, I had four friends I mostly palled around with. Aiden and Emily-Rose were included in that of course. Then there were the twins.

They both lived in Washington DC, two children of Athena. Georgianna and August were seventeen years old, a good medium of my sixteen and Aiden's eighteen. They had pitch black hair and matching grey eyes, and they shared the same ski slope noses that I had seen Aphrodite girls pay thousands to get. They had strong cheekbones, but the similarities ended there.

Georgianna was 5'7, putting her at another medium of being between my height and Emily-Rose's. She was pretty, a gentle beauty with a gentle disposition.

August was 6'1, two inches shorter than Aiden. He had a pair of "hipster" glasses as Emily-Rose glasses perched on his nose, and he was attractive in a way to be admired, not really enjoyed like Aiden. He wasn't as approachable as Aiden either, but he was still considered hot. August was the stereotype Athena child, usually holding a book and being quiet.

Georgianna was chewing on a stick of the eco-friendly gum that Emily-Rose had offered as Aiden began to point out constellations while August gave the back stories.

Emily-Rose stretched, letting out a yawn. She stood up, looking down at us all.

"Well, if August is done with his little history lesson, I am going to bed."

She and August had been bickering like this since they met.

August glared and opened his mouth, but Georgianna cut him off.

"Me, too. The flight was tiring," Georgianna stood, stretching as she looked to her brother as if questioning if he was going to stay or not. August sighed but stood, "Alright, alright. See you guys tomorrow," he nodded to Aiden and me.

I was about to say the same and get up to go on to bed, but Aiden spoke before I could.

"See you guys," he smiled, and I took it as I should stay. I let out a wave as they began to walk away, trying not to show my growing smile at time with Aiden alone.

Aiden looked over at me, smiling.

"I have been trying to talk to you all day. When did we become so damn popular?" he laughed, looking over at me. In the moonlight, his golden hair shimmered.

"It isn't _we_. It is _you_. Everyone here _loves_ you, Aiden," I laughed, shaking my head.

"They like you. You're the_ Jackson_ daughter." Aiden leaned back on the ground, looking up at the stars.

"But you're the Roman pretty much every girl at camp wants to sleep with?" I nudged him, laughing, and he stuck his tongue out.

"You're exaggerating."

"Please."

"All of the guys love you."

I rolled my eyes.

"If that were true, you and Noah would have killed all of them by now.

Aiden laughed, nodding, "Good point, good point."

I laughed, leaning back with him to where I could look up at the night sky.

"You do know we do it because we care about you though, right?" Aiden looked at me, propping his head up on his hand as his elbow rested on the ground.

I nodded, angling my head where I could smile at him.

"Yeah, I know. I care about both of you, too…" I blushed a little, silently praying that it was dark enough that Aiden couldn't see that. But I also knew my luck, and I moved my eyes back to the sky.

I began to fear what would happen next, thinking about all of those movies Emily-Rose and I had watched where the big surprise was that the love interest had gotten engaged or something even more horrible.

My mind began to wander to the possibility of him having a girlfriend. I could see her in my head. Tall and beautiful. She would be his age, flirty and confident. She would have perfect hair, pearl white teeth, and be as likeable and perfect as Aiden. It was what he deserved after all…

I did everything not to cringe, staring straight ahead at the sky. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Aiden run his fingers through his hair, smiling as he prepared to tell me his news.

I could see it now. He would tell me that he met someone. He would describe her, and he would claim he wanted me to meet her. Then he would rattle on a bit more about how perfect she was, and he would most likely announce that he was going home early to see her. Or he would just get up to make an iris message call to her before bed.

"Charlie, I have news," he grinned broadly.

I forced myself to look at Aiden, smiling slightly.

"What is it?"

"I'm moving to New Athens."

I sat up, shocked, "You're what?"

"Moving to New Athens!" he grinned, "I'm starting school here in the fall. This summer, I want you to help me pick a place to rent and everything. I'm gonna be here. I mean, I know you live in New York, but it isn't far. And you come here a lot. And…" Aiden was rambling, a smile plastered on his face, "I'm finally moving here. I've been wanting to for a long time…. What do you think, Charlie?"

He seemed scared of my reaction, and his face lit up as a smile spread across my face.

"Oh my gods!" I hugged him tight, laughing, and his arms wrapped around me, smiling into my hair.

"I take it that you like this," he smirked, and I nodded.

"Yes, I like this, Aiden. You're stuck with me now," I teased, nudging him.

_**Wow, I suck at updating.**_

_**But I have excuses. My phone got stolen. I had two projects due soon with only a limited amount of time to do them (This is what I get for doing project-based learning). I have been sick. Yada yada yada.**_

_**Anyway, did you like this? Or disappointing? ;)**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Noah,**_

"It is after curfew, you know," Kate smiled, sitting on the bed beside me. Her hair was piled up in a ponytail. She was wearing an old Camp Half-Blood tee shirt that hung off her figure, which meant it was probably mine.

I outstretched my arm for her, laughing slightly. The idea of her sleeping in the Athena cabin instead of in the bed beside me was still too foreign for me to think of. I had spent nights without her of course, but I was usually at a game. Or I had been kicked out of the room and forced to sleep on the couch.

It was such an issue with me that I had even brought up the idea of renting a house while we were here in New Athens instead of staying apart in the cabins. Kate just rolled her eyes and said we never spent the entire summer there anyway. We could always sneak back to the apartment for a weekend or two, maybe a week if we could come up with a really good excuse. But I didn't want to have excuses just to be around Kate. My Kate.

I smiled to myself softly as I thought about those two words.

_My Kate._

Sam often told me that I had turned into one of those guys from the movies our sisters would watch that we would make fun of. But I couldn't help it. I loved Kate. I wanted to marry Kate, have kids with Kate, settle down with Kate. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Kate!

I knew she saw it. She didn't say anything about it, but she knew. But I always felt like I wanted to tell her, make_ one hundred percent _sure she knew how much I loved her. Especially when she was so worried about not having a job.

I knew that there would be a time after she graduated that she didn't have a job. While Kate anticipated that time a few weeks, I thought it would be a few months. Maybe a year. But I knew I could take care of her and that it didn't really matter. I could support us above comfortably. There were no reasons to worry. I thought that Kate would take that as a relaxing idea, that she didn't have to just settle for the first job that came around because we needed to pay rent.

Instead, she just seemed anxious. She wanted to be self-sufficient, to no longer have me pay for everything. Honestly, I didn't care if she did or not. I want to take care of her. In fact, I had thought it was a _good _thing for her that I could take care of her afterall.

Kate laughed as I pulled her down to me, wrapping her up in my arms and resting her head on my shoulder. I began to rub her back, looking up at the springs of the bed above me.

Everything here was nautical and mostly automated. The control panel on the wall allowed the roof to turn into blue glass, making it look like we were underwater. The floor was a sand color with little shells scattered underneath the smooth surface. The walls could be taken away, letting the breeze flutter through the blue curtains. The renovations of all of the cabins were courtesy of Mt. Olympus Architectural company. Naturally, considering all of the founders were children of Athena, the Athena cabin was the best.

And then there were this old, metal bunk beds. They made it feel… homey.

I liked them. Even if they were the twin beds that made it final that Kate slept in the Athena cabin.

"Can't you just stay?" I kissed the side of her head, and she nuzzled into me, laughing softly.

"We're in a _twin bed_."

"We can make it work," I smirked, and she laughed harder.

"I need to get to bed," Kate said softly, and I sighed, "Sam's gonna tease us like hell."

"He always teases us like hell," I shrugged, "We tease him back."

"I think I know what we're both thinking…" Kate moved her head to where she was looking at me, and I frowned, "You know where she is, Noah.

Charlie.

Charlie was out past curfew. I have no idea where she is, if she is okay, or anything. No call. No text. Not even a friend giving me a warning.

_Shit. She grew up_.

"I wonder what they are doing," my mind was immediately jumping to the worst as I pictured Charlie and Aiden together because there was no doubt they were together. Bits and pieces of bad behavior mixed in my mind from drinking to drugs to me becoming an uncle in nine months.

Of course, most of the possibilities were eliminated because I knew that Charlie wouldn't do most of what I was thinking off or that Aiden sure as hell wouldn't let her. I was actually somewhat thankful for Aiden in that way. I knew he would keep an eye on my baby sister, and he was a good kid.

"Talking. Laughing," Kate smiled, nudging me, "Planning to run away together!"

"Shut. Up."

"You love me," she teased, kissing my jaw, and I smiled.

"You know I do," I nudged her, running my fingers across her cheek. She leaned in, kissing me softly and slowly. She shifted so that she could kiss me easier, letting my hand move to her waist.

Kate's lips pulled away gently, and she curled up into me even more. Her eyes were closing, and I noted with satisfaction that she would be staying here tonight with me. I could convince her to stay now. I continued to massage her waist, my hands moving in circles.

"We should do something tomorrow," Kate whispered, her head now resting against my chest.

"Maybe canoeing…" I moved my mouth to her ear, kissing it as I whispered, "Or sneaking back here and locking the door…"

"Bad boy," she smirked.

I smiled, "You look tired," I whispered, and she nodded.

Her eyes were still closed, and her body had relaxed into me.

"You should go to sleep… Here," I whispered, kissing her temple as I brought the blankets up around us. She didn't object, she just let out a cute "mmm."

I took that was an acceptance, and I closed my eyes, falling asleep.

_**Charlie,**_

"So, what were you and Aiden _doing_ last night?" Emily-Rose smirked at me as she walked to the shooting range. All traces of the hangover she had been suffering from yesterday were gone. Her eyes were vibrant or as vibrant as they could be in the morning at least.

She was wearing a pair of flowy, cotton shorts that were a bright green. Her willow branch belt held them up, and, to keep her outfit from being girly, she had pulled on her tattered black converse and a band tee shirt.

Smirking, she began to pull on her arm guard and August stood beside her, looking at her as if she was utterly insane.

"_What_?" Emily-Rose rolled her eyes, her hands resting on her hips, and he closed his eyes. He made a face but opened his eyes again.

"_Nothing_, Emily-Rose."

She just shrugged, somewhat defiantly. I watched her, not saying anything. August and Emily-Rose had never clicked very well. Even when we were fourteen years old and Aiden introduced us to Georgianna and August, they had not gotten along. Why they had stuck together, I don't know. Aiden had always thought that they were sticking to us and just got stuck with each other.

"_Anyway_," Emily-Rose drug out the word as she looked from August to me, "You never answered my question, Charlie. What were you two doing?" she smirked.

Of course, she already knew the answer. It was pretty clear that we didn't do anything. We never did, but she always teased me. She thought of it as her duty as my best friend. I thought of it as her own personal way of torturing me.

"Talking," I shrugged.

He was moving. The idea still buzzed around in my head. Aiden Cinna was moving. Moving _here_. I had never thought it would happen.

New Rome was his life. He was Praetor. When he told me that he was retiring, I was a bit shocked, but I knew it was coming. It had to _eventually_. He said he wanted to go to school, still _not_ a shock. We had talked about his retirement before.

He said he wanted to go to school. He wanted to stay in the government. It was all he had ever known after all. We had never talked about if he wanted a family, though I wondered. That dream years go popped into my mind. My greatest dream, what I want most.

If I thought about it long enough, I could see it. I had been married, living in New Athens. I was a marine biologist with two children. An older little girl and a younger little boy, both with blonde hair. I was married. To Aiden, and those were his two children, too…

It felt silly, like one of those things that I would hear the girls daydreaming about as we changed in the girl's locker room for gym. But, with Aiden, things were just… real. It wasn't something stupid I saw in a teen comedy.

"Did he proclaim his love for you?" Emily-Rose dramatically put her hand over her heart, and I glared at her.

"Shut. Up."

"You're turning into Mr. Worry Butt over here," Emily-Rose motioned to August, who stared at her.

"Did you really just call me _Mr. Worry Butt_?"

"Yes. Yes, I did."

"Hey, what did I miss?"

I jumped, shocked and embarrassed by Aiden's voice. I immediately wondered how much he ha heard, but it didn't seem to be much as he slung his arm over my shoulders, looking at all of us with a friendly smile. No sign of embarrassment.

"She called me _Mr. Worry Butt!_" August pointed at Emily-Rose accusingly, and I laughed as Aiden let out a little chuckle. Emily-Rose and August began to bicker, and I realized that these might as well have been our children.

"Hey, I was going to go look at houses in New Athens in a few days. Do you wanna come?" Aiden whispered, and his smooth, sultry voice made me shiver in the hot summer air. I didn't look at him in fear of him seeing just how his voice effected me.

"Yeah, yeah, that sounds good," I nod, and he smiled, "Hey, are you going to tell them?" I added quickly as I motioned to Emily-Rose and August who were fighting like little kids.

For such a usually controlled guy, August could be a caddy little kid with the best of them.

"Later, I think," Aiden nodded, his arm still around me as he watched the two of them, "Oh, and there is one more thing. It is my grandfather's birthday pretty soon. His sixty seventh," Aiden told me, "He wants me to come home and see him since I won't be living there anymore, and he actually… He wants to see you. And I mean, I want you to come, too…" Aiden nods.

"You do?" I now couldn't help it, looking over at him.

"Uh, yeah. Is that okay?"

"Oh, yes. Yeah," I felt like an idiot as I babbled, so I forced myself to stop.

"Okay then…" Aiden nodded, and I noticed he was awkward.

Aiden. Awkward.

Very rare occurrence.

Somehow it made me smile, and I looked back to Emily-Rose who was threatening to tell Georgianna on how August was acting. I laughed to myself, and Aiden rolled his eyes with a smirk as he put his arm between them.

"Now, _children_, behave," he smirked, and Emily-Rose glared at him with August looked at him as if he was utterly insane.

"Come on, we _all _know you _wuv each other_," I smirked, deciding to tease Emily-Rose about the crush they had both denied. It was there. I could see it even if they couldn't. Either they hated each other with a passion or loved each other.

I was hoping for the latter.

"Ew," August's voice was a flat monotone, and his face was a drooping look full of the seriousness he typically carried.

"Ew? Please, as if you could do better," Emily-Rose rolled her eyes.

"Oh, I most certainly _could_."

"Honey, you can't date a _book!_"

"Well, you can't that disgusting eco-friendly gum you make us all chew!"

Emily-Rose gasped, and I rolled my eyes, looking back to Aiden.

"Let's go shoot," I pulled on his arm, and he chucked as he watched them debate how the other was incapable of doing better.

"You have to admit they're _cute_," Aiden's voice changed as he said cute. He made sure it was softer, sweeter, and smoother. And he did a little face to go along.

I let out a little smirk, shaking my head.

"Or _annoying as_ _hell_. But I can see how _cute_ could be confused for that," I laughed, hip bumping him.

"Oh shush, Shorty," he patted the top of my head, and I stuck my tongue out.

"Well, _okay then_, Big Foot."

"Seven inches taller than you," he smirked as he unwrapped his arm from me to go get his arrows.

* * *

_**Another filler chapter, I know. I was so excited to get downtime and be able to work on these separate projects aside from school. This story, this book I got this idea for that I plotted out and have not had the time to actually **_**work **_**on, and a story I have been wanting to start for a very long time but have not had time to do.**_

_**I want to do so much! And I was finished with my busy project. The day we finished it, I walked into my 2nd block class, and he announces an extensive, crazy project in which it is a competition against the rest of the class. And you know I want to win that. Then, I have an idiot in my guidance department who double booked my 4th period next semester, and I have to work that out. **_

_**Then I got this big idea to upgrade myself to be completely interactive with you guys. You know, have a blog, post extra things for followers, get to hear directly from readers, and yada yada yada. I spent awhile working on it and suddenly remembered that I had tried that before, got like ten people visiting it and ditched the idea. Should I revisit it? **_


	5. Chapter 5

_**To Miss Amazing, I completely forgot about Sam and Swift (Swam, love that by the way), and I will definitely be adding them in!**_

* * *

_**Kate,**_

"I really think he knows we all stare at him by this point," Charlie commented, leaning up on her elbows. Her blonde hair was pulled into a braid behind her back, and she was wearing the black bikini that I had gone shopping with her for. Noah would have killed me if I ever told him that I bought it for her, so I made Charlie promise as soon as we got out of the store that the string bikini was our little secret.

She was motioning to Aiden, who was playing volleyball with a few of the guys from his cabin, opting to be on the shirtless team.

The Apollo cabin was full of hot guys, all glowing of their perfection. But there was always a leader, and it was Aiden. I wasn't even sure if it really was that he looked the best because it was so hard to tell with them all huddled, but he had this air to him that made people just bow down to let him lead.

He would never let that Praetor part of him die even if he was out of office.

"I'm not so sure," I shook my head, sitting up with a book as I looked at him. Charlie and I were most definitely _not_ the only ones looking. Pretty much every girl on the beach made efforts to sneak a glance at the sexy ex-Praetor who had joined Camp Half-Blood for the summer.

Not even Jason Grace had gotten this treatment. Even before he had started dating Piper, she made it very plain that he was hers. And, while Aiden's Roman flare had been admired, Jason's had not. They were seen more as downsides than anything else.

Aiden just… had this air to him that made everyone love him.

Girls all over pined for him, even though I think we all knew he was Charlie's. Even if he did date someone else, people just knew that he would always be around Charlie. Nobody would stop that.

"I don't think he _knows_ everyone is looking. I think he wants _one person_ to look," I smirked, nudging Charlie with my foot.

"You're just as bad a Emily-Rose. It isn't like that," Charlie shook her head, rolling her eyes, but her voice seemed to be wistful.

"Oh, so you just wear a string bikini because you feel like it?"

Charlie opened her mouth but closed it, defeated. She leaned her body back, sliding on her sunglasses and reaching for the book she had brought along in her bag.

That was her ultimate, _"Shut the hell up."_

I decided to ignore it.

"When are you two going to wake up and suddenly realize that the last three years have been your romantic movie, and this summer is your freaking time to have the kiss in the rain?" I began with no intention of stopping, "Hey, it is supposed to rain this Tuesday. Go hangout with him. Get some food. Proclaim your love. Kiss in the rain. Maybe catch a movie."

I moved to sit Indian style so I could rant easier.

She glared up at me.

"Do you not remember how _you_ ended up with Noah? You were bleeding out on a sidewalk, and you told him you loved him because you thought you were _dying_!" Charlie seemed to think that this was the ultimatum, but I just pulled my hair into a ponytail, not shaken up by the memory.

But it did shake me up.

Every day.

I would feel that deep fear of approaching death, that horrifying moment as I realized that everything was coming to an end. That I wouldn't have Noah anymore. That I wouldn't fulfill those plans we made.

"_Less than ideal_, I will admit. But look at Sam and Swift. Knew each other for a few _days_, knew they were meant to be even though they didn't get along, and they just told each other in Aphrodite's mansion. Now, they have been together three years," I took a sip of my water bottle, shrugging it off as I looked down at Charlie.

"_They_ are exceptions to the norm."

"When the hell has _Charlie Jackson_ been the norm?" I crossed my arms, and Charlie sighed, not sure if she was sad or annoyed that I was poking holes in her argument.

Charlie sat up, opening her mouth to say something. But, luckily, she spotted Georgianna, and she was opening her mouth to call her over and let her end the awkward silence when a son of Apollo named Diego gave her a celebration kiss after winning his volleyball tournament.

Charlie's jaw dropped.

"Who is that?" I asked, a smirk on my lips. I _knew_ who it was, I just wanted to point it out even more.

"Diego… Apollo boy. B-But…. They met last week!"

"Uh-huhhh," I let the words drag out, "And how long have you known Aiden again?"

"Shut up."

"What about Aiden?" there was a friendly laugh.

Even I jumped, and Charlie's eyes shot up to see who was talking.

Aiden.

Aiden in all of his shirtless, victorious glory. A laugh was spread across his lips, his hands resting on his hips, and the sun beamed down on him in a way that made him look like he was glowing.

"_Nothing_," Charlie gave me a look, "Not really. What's up?"

"We won!" he held out his hand for a high five as he plopped on the sand, and I met the high five as he laughed.

Charlie just rolled her eyes, and Aiden looked at her, trying to keep laughing. But I could tell that he really needed to be serious.

"Hey, so… are you free later today?"

I raised my eyebrow, looking at her. She gave me a look.

"Yeah, what time?"

"Like two."

"I'm free."

She wasn't, but I didn't say anything.

Aiden apparently could tell what I was thinking, and he almost seemed to blush.

"Well, I asked Swift to come, too. To look at houses, but she was busy," Aiden was trying to set the record straight, but there was a part of me that doubted it. Swift would have come.

"Hey, I promised your brother I would go sailing with him," I laughed, standing up to give them space, "I'll see you at dinner tonight, right?"

Charlie nodded up at me, trying not to show that she was relieved I was leaving.

_**Swift**_,

"Damn, you work me harder than my trainer," Sam complained, heaving as he rested his hands on his knees and leaned his body towards the ground. He was trying to catch his breath, his blonde hair falling in his eyes as he glanced up at me. We had just gotten back to the apartment, and we took the elevator the first few floors and ran the rest.

Sam's family had accepted me readily. In fact, they were often giving us advice on "how to make it last" that was usually told with adoring looks to their spouse as they talked. I usually tried to take it, though we were perfectly fine.

Great even.

I loved Sam more than anything in the world. I would die for him. I had basically given up my entire life for him because I wanted to be stable with him. I traded my secretive New Roman job for working as a consultant for Camp Half-Blood, not that they care too much about their military, and staying by Sam.

Sam's mother loved me. I settled down her party boy son, and I made him a perfectly serious man who didn't spend every night drinking at the hottest new club. Instead, he came home to eat Chinese food and watch a movie.

But she would not be convinced of the security of our relationship until I had an engagement ring on my finger, and, aside from asking her usual questions of how I stay in shape, she would then tell me little snippets of how she made her relationship so happy.

_They did things together, _she said.

Sam and I did things together, but they weren't official things planned for couple bonding. They were just things. So, Sam and I agreed that we would work out together.

After all, both of these things were pretty important to us. I couldn't control the world around me, but I could always control myself when I went to the gym. I knew my limits. I knew what I could and couldn't do.

A few years ago, that had been a saving grace. My job could be stressful. I could watch my best friend die in the name of protecting New Rome, and the world could stop making sense. But the training room would still be there, and I could always try those extra pull-ups. I could always run on the treadmill. I could always do those squats.

When I first moved to New York, I needed a gym more than anything. I loved Sam, and I regretted it in absolutely no way. But I still was in a new city with a completely different life. I barely knew anyone, and I was without a job for the first time that I could remember.

I needed to be with something I knew, and I would always know this…

When Noah and Kate were going off to camp for basically constant "bonding activities" as his mother put it, Sam and I decided to start working out together instead of just talking about it. It had been a few days, and I had adjusted to it.

Sam _hadn't_.

I woke him up at seven in the morning, which was late for me, but he was _not over it_. He tried to drink his usual shot of Vodka that he did to calm a morning that started too early, and it backfired, leaving him puking in the men's locker room of our gym. So, he had skipped it today, and he was clearly moody.

"How is it you're a professional athlete again?" I smirk, stretching my legs by pulling one up behind me.

Sam's eyes ran over me as he straightened his back. He was a good four inches taller than me if not more. He was more muscular than me and older by a few months. But everyone agreed that I was more intimidating.

"Why do you keep your hair up like this? I like seeing it down," Sam took a step closer, one hand resting on my bare waist and the other running his fingers over my tight ponytail.

Sam was tired. I could see it in his grey eyes. I had kept him up the night before, which he swore he wouldn't have traded even if it did mean more sleep. I had to admit that I had worked him pretty hard, especially considering he would have been leisurely walking around the apartment and deciding if we should get bagels or pancakes for breakfast if I hadn't gotten up.

I knew what he was doing, and I just laughed.

"Have you tried doing push-ups with your hair down?" I smirk, taking a sip of my water bottle. My eyes looked up to him, and I had to catch my breath still. I had known him for three years, dated him for three years, and _lived with him_ for three years. But I still was shocked to see how amazing he was.

There were days where it was strange to think that my boyfriend's face was plastered on the walls of teenage girls, but then there were moments where I could completely see it. This was that moment.

His skin was tanned, and his bright grey eyes stuck out. His blonde hair was fashioned to stand up, adding a tad of height to his 6'2. He was long and lean, trained well. And there was this strong confidence that just oozed out of him, coming out in the smile on his lips, the look in his eyes, and even the way he stood.

"Well, you aren't doing push-ups now," Sam smirked, his hand moving to my ponytail, and he pulled it out, his fingers running through my wavy hair. It fell in my eyes, and he just smiled down at me as he continued to play with my hair.

"I think I know what you're doing," I whispered as he began to run his hands up and down my side.

"Oh, do you?" he smiled, looking at me.

"You want to get me distracted to make sure you won't have to do anything else."

"I do not!" he faked shock, "I just want to get you distracted."

Sam kissed my neck, his fingers lacing through my black hair as he pulled me closer to him. I let out a small moan, managing to put my water bottle on the kitchen counter. I leaned my neck to the side, swallowing hard to avoid moaning.

"How about," Sam's whisper tickled my skin, "we do something else to work out instead of running up the stairs?" Sam planted another kiss on my collarbone, "Just with the two of us…"

"You're bad," I smirked, not saying I was giving in. But my fingers were running through his hair, and my body was pressed against his.

"Hey, you wore a damn sports bra and shorts all day! You _planned _this, I know it," he laughed, his kisses trailing up my neck.

It was _no _secret that Sam loved my body. He didn't love it too much that things would never be the same if I got out of shape or when I got older, but he _did_ enjoy it. Just like I enjoyed his.

"You took off your shirt," my lips parted as he found the sweet spot right under my chin.

"I'm all sweaty," Sam's breath hit my skin as his lips pulled away from my neck, "I think I need a shower."

It was very clear what he meant.

"Me, too."

"Well, we better save water then," his eyes ran over me, holding out his hand for me to follow him to the shower.

_**Charlie,**_

A polite smile beamed on the real estate agent's face as she looked at us. She was a young girl of about twenty-three, give or take a few years. She had pomegranate red hair, and a pair of fake hipster glasses at on her nose. She was 5'4, her arms continuously gesturing about the house as she talked, and I believe she was the daughter of Hestia. She had said some other things about herself, but I immediately wondered how she was born to a virgin goddess but thought it impolite to ask.

"Now, you get _a lot of space_, which is great," she began as she ran her fingers over the marble countertop, and she dramatically turned to Aiden and Me, "_But_ you are _so _young. Don't you want to be where the action is? Bars, restaurants. I mean, we're outside of the city, but who said you couldn't have the same atmosphere?"

As I looked at Aiden, I tried to imagine him _where the action is_.

In his Praetor home, he had been pretty close to everything. He was in the city, and it was a quick walk to work and to entertainment, though he mainly took up in the first. His home with his grandfather was on the edge of the city, a cute little house with a basketball goal in the garden and a family pictures on the wall.

Considering this was his retirement, I guess he _should_ have gone to an apartment more in New Athens. But, when we walked into the real estate agent's office an hour ago, he had said he wanted to be somewhat away from the city.

"I've had to handle busy. This is retirement after all," Aiden shrugged, a small polite smile spreading across his lips. He looked nice and friendly as always, but I could see his patience on the matter wearing thin.

In fact, I think his patience with _her_ was growing thin. You didn't often find someone he wouldn't be cordial to. He was often making up for my lack of his friendly attitude when I wasn't in the mood to be very nice.

At two, we met at my cabin, and we went into the city. As soon as we got to the office, the real estate agent had two coffees and a big grin on her face. She introduced herself as Layne and assumed I was his girlfriend, telling us we were a very cute couple. We quickly tried to tell her we weren't, and we awkwardly sat apart in her car as we drove to the first house.

"But you're _eighteen_, right? A _freshman_. Be close to school and fun. Get out there, Cutie," she patted his shoulder, and he looked at me, trying not to laugh.

"Well, you know, Charlie."

Suddenly, Aiden's arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me close.

I tried to hide the shock on my face, and she noted it with satisfaction.

"Do you think that the baby would like this house?" Aiden's hand rested on my stomach, and my eyes widened as I looked at him.

"Ohmagods," Layne's eyes widened, "Oh, oh, oh! You _need_ space. Maybe you need more!"

I opened my mouth to stop her and get mad at Aiden, and he rubbed my stomach as he pulled me off, asking which room would be good for a nursery. I glared at him, my mouth forming a big O.

He pulled me into one of the bedrooms and let me go, leaning up against the door as he closed it behind us.

"You're pissed."

"What the _hell_, Aiden?" I crossed my arms, my eyes glancing down at my stomach to double check if I looked like I had a baby bump. I adjusted my loose tee shirt, my eyes shifting back to him with renewed annoyance.

"She was pissing me off," Aiden walked towards me, "And you always say I should stop being so nice and be an ass sometime."

The constant storm in his ocean blue eyes settled on me, making me lost in it. He knew it worked, and he rested a hand on my arm, silently imploring me to drop my crossed my hot breath hit my neck, and it made me shiver.

My jaw tightened, struggling to keep glaring.

"Yeah, be an ass _without _telling someone we're having a _freaking baby_," I whisper-hissed.

"We will _never_ see her again. She is moving to New Rome with her boyfriend, I heard someone at the real estate agency say it."

"_Still_!"

"Fine, fine, I'll tell her you're not pregnant," Aiden sat down on the floor, his back to the wall, and he held out his hand for me to sit beside him. I took it without thinking and sat beside him, my back pressing against the wall.

"Tell me, why do you want to be away from the city?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at him as I stretched my legs out, and my eyes looked at our legs beside each other, looking at the difference of the length.

"I don't know…" he looked around, leaning his head on the top of mine, still trying to make it up to me after saying I was pregnant, "I just… want… air. I never wanted those crazy years, I've always been too serious. And…"

"And?" I asked, relaxing into him.

"I like space. Air to breathe. Family can visit. And… you know," he coughed, a little nervous, "When I want… _kids_, I may not even need to move."

"You want kids?"

"Yeah," Aiden actually seemed to blush.

"You've never mentioned that," I shrug, biting my lip.

"Well, I didn't have the whole family thing," Aiden seemed to relax a little more, not as embarrassed, "My mom was never really involved, and she left completely when I was four. I grew up with my grandfather, and I was involved with the Roman military when I was a kid. When Swift came around, there was more of a _family thing_ going on, but I don't know…" he shrugged.

I nodded.

I could now hear Layne's high heel shoes on the floor outside of the door, and I looked to Aiden.

"Do I have to explain now or later that you aren't pregnant?" he stood up, holding out his hand to help me up. I took his help, thinking about it.

Before I could answer, the door was opened suddenly by Layne, a big grin on her face as she looked at us.

"Now, you both should just see the master!" she began, "There is a perfect little area for the crib later on!"

Aiden opened his mouth to explain, but I suddenly clutched onto him, laughing and nodding.

"Listen, you wouldn't tell anyone, right? We don't want to tell just yet. We just want to enjoy the news to ourselves for right now," I leaned my head on Aiden's shoulder, and he smirked at me where she couldn't see before nodding. His hand rested on my stomach protectively as if we actually were having a baby.

I resisted the urge to laugh as I looked at Layne, and she nodded.

"I am the _best_ secret keeper, _really_! Nobody will know. Let me show you the master," she nodded, leading me towards the door.

* * *

_**It is Christmas vacation, **_**finally**_**. I am actually on vacation in New York, and I have an application due the 8th in which I have to write a short story to Governors School this summer, but I am **_**blocked. **_**Utterly **_**blocked. **

_**I wrote this chapter to get the creative juices flowing, but I have nothing. Especially something I could do in only 10 pages.**_

_**By the way, Sam and Swift are back! And Aiden and Charlie were pretending to be pregnant. Fun, right? ;)**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Sam**_**,**

"_Oh gods_," a sudden, sickly realization was made, and I felt someone jump out of bed.

My eyes slowly blinked open, letting out a yawn as I looked around to see the sudden commotion. I had slept perfectly for the last few nights. Swift had been working me almost to exhaustion. We woke up early, worked out for an hour, walked back, and ran up a few flights of stairs. Usually, at some point during the day, I could get her distracted, and we would eventually go out for lunch. Because Swift doesn't see the need to take a cab when walking is so easy in New York, we walk to get lunch. And we continue to walk around for most of the day until my feet could fall off.

I am a professional athlete, but I have never been as tired as when Swift became my "trainer" for the summer.

I usually slipped as much sleep as I could in, even napping on the couch when I could, but I was slipping in and out of sleep tonight.

And I was awake again.

I looked over at Swift's side of the bed and noticed it was empty and our bathroom door was wide open with the lights on. My eyes glanced the clock on Swift's nightstand, the one that I had considered throwing out the window after it had woken me up so much in the last few days.

_4:00_ flicked to _4:01_, and I stood up slowly, rubbing at my eyes.

"Swift?" I called out, looking for my girlfriend of three years. I assumed it had been her who had jumped out of bed, if that hadn't been a dream my sleepy state thought was reality.

I slowly made my way to the bathroom, stumbling around, and I heard a vague sound that I didn't pay much attention to. My eyes adjusted to the bright lights of our bathroom, and they widened at the sight.

Swift was doubled over the toilet, looking like she had just puked up her guts and worried it would happen again. Her hair fell in her eyes, which looked completely miserable.

"Swift? What the Hades? You okay?" I fell to my knees, pulling her hair out of her eyes, and I handed her a washcloth. She wiped at her mouth, disgusted, and she made a face. I grabbed another, soaking it in the sink and handing it to her.

"I woke up and puked," Swift shrugged as I put my hand on her forehead to see if she had a fever. She didn't. She felt completely normal now, other than a little shaken. Swift did not get sick, and, if she did, she took a day to rest under my orders and that was it. She didn't throw up or whine. Sometimes, she even got up and went for a short jog before I woke up because she didn't want to get out of her regimen.

I was trying to remember the last time Swift had thrown up in the three years we had lived together, and I could only think of _once_. It was the first time I had taken her out to a club in New York, and it lead into two after parties full of more drinking. She threw up on her shoes, which we just left at that party, and she threw up the next morning. That had been almost three years ago

"How do you feel now?" I asked as she rubbed at her mouth.

"Like shit," Swift admitted, "Help me up, so I can brush my teeth."

I extended my arms, slowly helping her up. Swift was a little shaky, but she was able to stand and go through her rigorous tooth-brushing regimen. She borrowed some of my "after-drinking" insanely strong mouth wash which was kept underneath the sink but was only used in an emergency, and she scrubbed at her face. All the while, I stood there, somewhat waiting for her to suddenly collapse and throw up again. She didn't though.

"Let's get you to bed, Cutie," I wrapped my arms back around Swift, pulling her towards me, and she gave me a look.

"Do _not_ call me _Cutie_."

"Whatever you say…." I smirked, kissing the side of her head, and I whispered, "Cutie…"

She playfully tried to push me off, but I held onto her, leading her back to bed.

"No working out tomorrow, you're sleeping," I told her as I put her back in bed, and she crossed her arms.

"I'm _fine_."

"You're still not working out," I shrugged as I climbed into bed beside her, and she looked at me as if I was insane.

She opened her mouth, and I could tell by the look in her eyes that whatever she was about to say was something I really didn't want to hear. So, I cut her off by pulling her towards me, tucking her head in my neck as I rested my chin on the top of her head. I tightened my grip on her waist, yawning.

"Get over it, I'm not letting go unless I want to," I smirked, kissing the top of her head, and she grumbled her _many_ complaints. But, even under her staunch independence and annoyance of my current dominance in the situation, she sounded relieved.

"When do you think you're doing to _want to_?" she asked, and I could tell she wanted to put her hands on her hips, something she usually did when she was annoyed with me, which was _common_. But it wouldn't have mattered because I wouldn't see it, so she just struggled to glare up at me.

"Eh, maybe noon. You're going to have to sleep in," I smirk, knowing Swift and sleeping in didn't work well together.

"You suck," she muttered.

"You threw up," I shrugged as if that made things even.

"I don't feel like I'm going to throw up again," she tried, and I shrugged once more.

"Not risking it," I sang out.

"_Fine_. Just go to sleep," she nuzzled her head into my shoulder, her arm slowly wrapping around my chest. I could feel her body relax, and it wasn't long before her breathing evened and I knew she was asleep.

_**Charlie,**_

"I _hate_ jogging," I muttered to myself, my hands on my knees as Aiden stretched. He asked me last night if I wanted to go jogging with him in the morning. Thinking about how Sam and Swift were working out together to spend time together, I said yes without actually realizing we'd be jogging.

At six in the morning, Aiden was standing by my door, waiting for me to get ready.

A crucial piece of information he left out was that we were jogging around the entire camp, which took about forty minutes, and Aiden didn't enjoy breaks. He wanted to keep going, and he went along with ease as if this was just a walk around the park. In fact, he looked like he would have enjoyed a _sprint_ more.

I hated working out.

I had to do it though. Percy Jackson was my father, and I spent my summers at Camp Half-Blood.

When I was thirteen years old, I looked at all of the other girls and decided my stomach pooch was no longer alright. I told my mother this in conversation, and, all of a sudden, Chiron was harder on me. My first camp schedule included just about every physical activity I had wanted to avoid, including a miserable dance class with Aphrodite girls in crop tops.

How Aiden loved running, push-ups, crunches, pull-ups, and every other exercise I watched kids here do with ease was beyond me. I couldn't even do a push-up.

While I was panting, thanking the gods we had circled the camp, Aiden dropped to the ground and started doing his push-ups. I stared at him, suddenly realizing how much work went into that body everyone at camp loved.

I put my hands on my hips as I straightened my spine.

"Do you not get _tired_?"

Aiden seemed to consider it as he finished out his push-ups, and he jumped to his feet. As he turned to look at me, his forehead covered in beads of sweat, it was the first time he had really stayed still. He was panting, though not as bad as me, and his eyes washed over me.

"'Course I do. But I've been doing this for as long as I can remember. I can't stop," he admitted with a shrug.

"That Roman part of you won't die, huh?" I smirked, trying to make him grin. He did, but it was fleeting.

Aiden and I talked about him growing up with his grandfather, but we didn't talk about training. We never talked about the work he did before he was Praetor, and we didn't much talk about the work he did as Praetor. We always had boundaries, and I accepted them. But I knew him.

It was hard for him to give up Roman, to be Greek. He wanted to, and I was never really sure why. He wanted to show up and be like us instead of being the guy who stood out all the time. He had the confidence and charisma to succeed as that oddball, but he tried to fit in with his siblings so hard. But they were always different in some way. It irked him.

"I'm trying to be Greek, it is a lot harder than it looks," he shook his head, rubbing his neck.

"We like you Roman," I nudged him, and he grinned down at me.

"Please, you complain about it all the time," his eyes were playful, but his smile was adoring. I loved that look on his face. It came when we were alone, when we were just happy being together. When there were no expectations to be more than friends or just friends, and we weren't thinking about how the other would interpret it so much. I wasn't suddenly wondering if he would kiss me or proclaim his love, and I wasn't worrying that he was just too comfortable with me and that I would only be his friend.

I could just relax and enjoy his sweet smile.

"I _complain_, but that doesn't mean I don't _like _it," I laughed.

"Uh-huh," Aiden rolled his eyes, wrapping his arms around my shoulders, "Come on, Lazy. I'm hungry."

He started pulling me towards the dining hall, and I glared at him.

"I am not _lazy_. I just hate jogging," I shrugged, keeping his arm around my shoulders.

"Then _why_ did you agree to come jogging with me?" he laughed, turning to look at me, and I let out a little blush.

I had to think about my response. He wouldn't have believed me if I said I wanted to learn to love jogging because I hadn't been willing at all to enjoy it. I couldn't just tell him that I wanted to spend time with him because we already spent so much time together, and I couldn't explain that I had agreed because Sam and Swift were using it as _couple bonding_.

"I don't _know_, I just… _did_," I answered, my voice final as I shrugged. Trying to add emphasis, I crossed my arms.

"You're crazy," Aiden just laughed at me, and he kissed the top of my head, making me grin.

I leaned into him as we walked to the dining hall, which was just starting up for breakfast. I considered going back to my cabin to take a quick shower, but I didn't want to slide out of Aiden's grip. So, we just kept walking. Aiden and I were deciding on if we should sit at a table outside together or sit with our siblings when we could hear bickering from the doorway.

"I did not!"

"You most certainly _did_."

"Why the hell would I steal your Hamming book?"

"_Hemmingway_!"

Letting out a snicker to myself, I looked over to see who was causing the commotion, though I already knew. Aiden snorted on his coffee, and he turned back with me, his arm tightening around my shoulders instead of letting go.

Emily-Rose and August were at it again. August was half-asleep, wearing a pair of sweat pants that looked like he slept in them and his old, battered army jacket. His glasses were falling off the bridge of his nose, but he was too mad to fix them. His fists were balled, and Emily-Rose silently seemed to be daring him to do something about it. She was perfectly awake, wearing an odd but carefully chosen outfit. Though the green maxi didn't make much sense with her Kermit the Frog tee shirt, the green in "_It's hard being green_" matched the skirt perfectly. Her arms crossed, causing her bangles to jingle, and she glared up at August.

Georgiana usually was in charge of putting out these fights, but she was holding hands with Diego, son of Apollo. She was perfectly content and didn't seem to care that her twin brother was screaming about a stolen book at breakfast.

"Aren't they cute?" Aiden sang in my ear, and I covered my laugh with my hand.

"You know what, I am not even fighting about this! Find your little book, I didn't take it!" Emily-Rose raised up her hand as if to emphasize that this was _final_. She stomped off, starting off to get breakfast. August was fuming, but he started to off to get his own breakfast, grumbling all the way.

Aiden gave me a look, smirking as he pulled me along to stand in line behind them. August looked at me and made a circle with his finger by his head, signaling she was crazy, while she wasn't looking. And, while August wasn't looking, Emily-Rose did the same thing.

"Don't you laugh," Aiden snickered in my ear, and I bit my laugh to avoid it.

"But it is so hard," I whispered as I put a Belgium waffle on my plate, and he just nudged me as he bit into an apple.

With Emily-Rose giving death glares and August mumbling about how much he loved that book, they lead us to a table outside. We walked past Georgiana, who was still kissing on Diego, and we sat all at the table. To avoid a fight, I sat on the side with Emily-Rose and let Aiden sit with August.

"Stop stealing my bacon," I swatted at Aiden's hand, but he already had gotten away and was taking a bite of my bacon with a triumphant grin.

Suddenly, Emily-Rose's annoyed face perked up, and she leaned on the table to look at the two of us better. She flashed a devilish grin, and I knew already to be afraid. I nervously took a gulp of my apple juice.

"Yeah, Aiden, she's eating for _two_ because of you from what I hear."

I choked on the juice, looking at her with wide eyes. Aiden's jaw dropped, and a blush spread across his cheeks.

I could see Layne now, pushing those big-rimmed glasses up on her nose. She would talk about the cute little couple on her last house hunt, and she would explain he was eighteen and going to school here, just simple stuff. Then, she would flip her hair and lean in as she explained, "Now, I _shouldn't _ be telling you this, but I just _know_ I can trust you. The girlfriend, cute girl really, is pregnant," and she would urge you to ask who it is. She would pretend that she was just "worn to secrecy and couldn't tell. Just couldn't tell!" But she'd cave and say, "Now, you'll keep this a secret? It was… Aiden Cinna, the ex-Praetor, and Charlie Jackson!"

I could kill her.

Suddenly, the little joke we had spent the last few days talking about, keeping it our own little secret, didn't see as funny.

"I'm not _pregnant_," I whispered.

"Oh, really?" she smirked, "Jamie Morris is the younger sister of your real estate agent's boyfriend, and Jamie asked if it was a big secret. I told her it wasn't true and that you guys refused to even _kiss_. There was no baby!"

I blushed deeply, avoiding looking at Aiden.

"So, now, what I want to know is why on earth you told your real estate agent that you were pregnant?" Emily-Rose asked, biting into her waffle.

"It seemed funny at the time," Aiden shrugged simply.

"And she kept pressuring him to get an apartment," I tried to copy how cool and melancholy he was, but he was much better at it than me.

"Saying I was going to have a baby in the house made her stop forcing me into a loft by campus," Aiden took a sip of his drink with a shrug, but I could see the fervent embarrassment as he quickly looked at me and then back at Emily-Rose.

"Makes sense to me," August shrugged, ending the debate, and Emily-Rose gave him a look. She had wanted to go much farther with it, and she just shook her head.

"Can you go get me coffee, August?" Emily-Rose asked.

"Get your own coffee," August glared at her.

"_Please_ get me coffee," she looked back to me, "So, Charlie, I usually use pads, but I'm wondering if maybe I should use tampons?"

"Leaving," August stood quickly.

"I'm coming, too," Aiden jumped up and followed him.

"Why does that always work?" Emily-Rose rolled her eyes, turning to grab something out of her purse. She started digging around but finally found it, pulling out a small little paperback with _Hemmingway _written on the cover.

I laughed, shaking my head.

"You actually took it?"

"Yeah, he was pissing me off. I'm giving it back," she slid the book onto his seat with a smirk.

* * *

_**So, the story. I went to New York and got an idea the night before I left. I started writing at the airport, finished on the plane. We had a college professor who had read some of my work before check over it for me, and she just sat down with my mom and said, "Your daughter writes well. This was forced. Good idea, but forced. She doesn't want to go." So, my mom came home and asked if I actually wanted to go, and the truth is… I don't. It is something I was going to just add to my college resume, and my teachers were being annoying about getting the references for me because they were getting together report cards. So, I am not going to do it, and, if I regret it, I can just do it next year.**_

_**Why am I explaining this? No idea. I need to stop talking so much...**_

_**I hope you liked Swam... Throwing up? Weird... ;)**_

_**Anyway, hope you had a great break! I was sick for most of it personally. And my mom wants me to keep her on her work-out resolution. When I don't force her to remember, she forgets, so I am going to the gym about every day. So, I have an excuse for this taking so long!**_


End file.
